New Richey book due - a novel this time

[Slideling]

Originally Posted by keeley

If you're responding to me, I wasn't talking about you I meant Nikolai's attempt at phrasing a question.

k

I was, I haven't noticed E.Cow's post above mine until I sent!...

[Ermintrude the Cow]

Keely - Ermintrude is fine

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by keeley

Thank you for your question. Do you want to elaborate any on what facts were ignored...?

To everyone else - please be serious if you're going to give me questions. I'm not going to round up any old shit that's thrown at me to be funny or sarcastic or whatever. I don't give a crap what you think of the novel, but realize that it takes some fucking balls for Ben to allow us to interview him like this--not once, but twice--so show some respect for that, at least. It's more than most anyone else does, especially in an online setting.

I don't think it shows balls at all, it's all part of promoting his product and trying to flog a few extra copies. If you're going to write a book with that subject matter the least you can do is accept some accountability.

I also think that the writer himself could be accused of a massive lack of respect shown to Richey and Richey's family and friends by even writing this book and by the nature of a lot of its style and assumptive content - fiction or otherwise. There's so many horrendous errors in the thing - not just Manics info but simple use of words etc too - that I think he could have shown a lot more respect to his subject by researching and writing the thing properly, if he had to do it at all. It's one thing making a typo online - we're all human - but it is truly lazy to release a book full of them. Smacks of rushing it out to make a few quid to me.

I can, however, now see from reading back my comment from last night that I was a little excessively nasty in my knee-jerk response and I probably should apologise for that really: Apologies. I also apologise to you Keeley if you felt I was having a pop at you personally - I would do no such thing.

I stand by my opinion that the book is an absolute shocker but anyone should just read it for themselves and make up their own mind. Get it from the library though

[Nikolai]

Originally Posted by Ermintrude_the_Cow

If I had known nothing/minimal about the band/Richey I'd have probably enjoyed it. I quite like the way it skips from first person (the present situation of Richey doing his disapearing act) to second person (flashbacks from his childhood), especially as second person is notoriously hard to write in but he pulls it off well.
However, I find in a lot of places the author tries to 'sound like Richey' and ends up using over-pretentious language that I know Rich used in his lyrics but doubt he would have used in private thoughts/conversations with his parents etc.
Factual errors, well, you have to accept that it is fiction and no, James probably didn't have that exact conversation with Nicky etc, but the two things that really stood out for me were that on the inside cover it makes reference to Richey disappearing andd leaving "the rest of MSP" in the hotel when of course only James was in there with him. He could have just said "leaving MSP to continue as a three-peice" or something; and the other one was that early on in the book it states (quite correctly) that Nick was a school-year behind Richey and then later on has Richey getting his 2.1 and being disapointed (again, a fact) and it then says "Nick was perfectly happy with his 2.2" - now if Richey was just getting his degree, surely Nicky had only just finished second year (both in real life and the continuity of the book). It also mentions Nicky "popping round" when they were both in Swansea, despite it being well doccumented that they lived together, and also says something about Nick dragging Rich to the Union bar for a drink, despite Wire being on the record saying he was proud of having never entered the Students Union.
Most people won't be bothered by these little things, but I guess we aren't "most people" and I think he should perhaps have researched a little bit more; to make it as believable as possible. These things are quite easy to find out, a scan of FD would have told him most of them!

You know your onions! Impressive.

[franny]

Originally Posted by keeley

Thank you for your question. Do you want to elaborate any on what facts were ignored...?

To everyone else - please be serious if you're going to give me questions. I'm not going to round up any old shit that's thrown at me to be funny or sarcastic or whatever. I don't give a crap what you think of the novel, but realize that it takes some fucking balls for Ben to allow us to interview him like this--not once, but twice--so show some respect for that, at least. It's more than most anyone else does, especially in an online setting.

Firstly, no, I'm not referring to specific incidences, just wondering what his take is, I don't want to get nitpicky over details, just find out what he thinks.

And secondly, +1, I had a lot of admiration for him before I read the book and even more so now.

[Slideling]

K, did you Interview Ben? You said the deadline was Dec. 11th, would it mean he got the questions already? Right now I feel compelled to ask him something.

[keeley]

Originally Posted by Richian

K, did you Interview Ben? You said the deadline was Dec. 11th, would it mean he got the questions already? Right now I feel compelled to ask him something.

You can still submit a question if you'd like

[Slideling]

Ta!

A couple of corrections to what I sent, I don't want to clog your inbox for nothing:

'This was the comparison I used when a friend asked me for my opinion on 'Richard - A Novel'. [ *Should have been 'me', not 'my'; No question mark at the end.]

[keeley]

Thanks, I got it and will edit in those corrections!

Oops, while I'm here - thanks for your reply/apology Nikolai. It was nicer than I expected to receive! (at least the part aimed at me, haha ) Appreciate it.

[Little Troll]

It's Christmas day and I've now received my copy of Richard!

I haven't started reading it properly yet but I flicked through and it seems to change a lot to and from italic font which has already confused me...

I'll start reading it tomorrow and will get back with what I thought...

[Bonesy]

Here does anyone know if it's as funny as 'In The Beggining' by Jennie Watson-Baggio?

[Slideling]

If you could laugh at some bizarre out-of-characterness... maybe.

[RoseTintedSpecs]

I just got Richard as a Christmas present from a friend, I wasn't really planning on ever buying it to be honest and I'd rather have unwrapped Everything but seeing as I now have a copy, I'm going to give it a chance. Think I might have made her feel as though she'd got me an unwanted present though - I didn't really know how to react when I unwrapped it because I thought it was actually going to be Everything, being book-shaped and all, but I appreciate that she did put a lot of thought into what she was going to get me for Christmas.

I haven't read any books in a while, so maybe it'll help to ease me back into reading more regularly.

[Oh Nick...!]

Interview with Ben on The Quietus: http://thequietus.com/articles/05546...ards-ben-myers

[SeveredJoke]

Interesting interview.

I liked this bit

Here's something I have learnt though: there are many young, intelligent, articulate people who consider themselves as being alternative or open-minded yet who act, talk and think like Young Conservatives. It's no wonder the Tories got in. We're living in an age where moral outrage is encouraged, hysteria is the norm and the kneejerk reaction is the prevailing reaction. This is an era when some stupid woman putting a cat into a dustbin can galvanise more people into action than a genocide in a far-flung country. The internet is the great facilitator for this moral outpouring. But let he who is without sin... and all of that.