The Writer's Journey: in the footsteps of the literary greats
One book, two reviews, which ya gonna choose?
Greetings!
Here’s another compare and contrast post. I submitted a review of this book to Teach Secondary magazine in the UK. In this article I’ve included the published version, followed by the copy I sent in. While the two are very similar, I do think the differences (one in particular) are different enough to make a difference.
But what do you think? Which version is better, and on what basis have you decided that? Please have your say in the comments section.
The published version
Where do authors’ ideas come from? Even Stephen King finds that a difficult question to answer. One possible answer might be ‘Everything they see on their travels’, because as Roland Barthes once suggested, writers are never truly on holiday – not when everything they see is grist to the mill, so to speak. Serving up biographical information on an astonishing range of writers, Journey... examines their various travels in detail, alongside maps and illustrations. Thus, we discover that many of Bashō’s haiku were directly influenced by his extensive peregrinations; learn how the inspiration for Harry Potter first came to J. K. Rowling during an interminable train journey; and are shown how Jane Austen’s experiences of seaside towns found their way into her fiction. The Writer’s Journey contains a wealth of interesting background information for English Literature students, let down only by the too-often pointless inclusion of the aforementioned maps.
My original version
Where do authors’ ideas come from? Even Stephen King has noted that this is a difficult question to answer. One answer might be what they see on their travels because, as Roland Barthes has suggested, writers are never truly on holiday because everything they see is grist to the mill so to speak. Providing biographical information on an astonishing range of writers, ‘Journey’ looks at their travels, supported by a map and other illustrations in each case. Thus we discover that many of Bashō’s haiku were directly influenced by his extensive peregrinations, J. K. Rowling had the inspiration for Harry Potter on an interminable train journey, and Jane Austen’s experiences of seaside towns found their way into her fiction. Therefore ‘Journey’ provide interesting background information for English Literature students. The only disappointing aspect is the maps, some of which achieve new heights of pointlessness.
Over to you
Well? Which version do you prefer? And why?
I prefer the original because it is more direct about Stephen King and the disappointment of the maps being included — and is therefore more complete.
Peregrinations???!!!