While pretty much everyone has linked to this, and (hopefully) everyone has read it, I'm linking up just in case someone has missed it. It's an eye-opener, and an important must-read:
I haven’t been speaking out publicly because to be the first person to do so would have been unprofessional. I have privately been campaigning for a different cover for the paperback. The response to the cover by those who haven’t read Liar has been overwhelmingly positive and I would have looked churlish if I started bagging it at every opportunity. I hoped that once people read Liar they would be as upset as I am with the cover.
This ... is colossally depressing to me, and it's one of those things I'm going to have to avoid if Me and The Interwebs will remain friends for long. SO. Depressing. Should I be thrilled that this has happened, and that conversation is beginning on what is obvious to a lot of people? Or should I just be relieved that it happened to a Caucasian person, and so conversation is beginning on what is obvious to a lot of people?
...I said DEPRESSING, didn't I?
Okay. Taking my cynical self home.
Posted by: tanita | 25 July 2009 at 08:17 AM
The brouhaha over Patricia Wrede's The Thirteenth Child depressed me, too. Just so you don't think I'm narrow in my depression and cynicism...
Posted by: tanita | 25 July 2009 at 08:19 AM
The Interwebs can be an especially difficult place to be. I do think that the conversation has happened previously -- recently, even, like about the original (ridiculous) cover of Le Guin's Powers, and for that matter, people went bananas about the Earthsea mini-series -- the more times the topic comes up, the more upsetting it is for those who've been aware of it, but, on the other hand, the more times it comes up, the more people who become aware of it.
I still haven't read Thirteenth Child. Damnit.
Posted by: Leila | 25 July 2009 at 02:28 PM
True, true. And in 2001, WHALE TALK had a blurry pale guy on the cover instead of a biracial Japanese, Black and Caucasian character, and Chris Crutcher was incensed. You're right. Every time it comes up, the stink gets bigger -- Earthsea, Whale Talk, Liar. And soon... maybe there won't be a need for a stink anymore.
Hope springs eternal.
Posted by: tanita | 25 July 2009 at 04:46 PM
Oh man, we were SO mad about the Whale Talk cover... remember?
JL's post is really great, but I thought the comments were even better; especially all the ones from readers, parents and kids making it clear that this kind of crap is a problem and WHY it's a problem. Maybe marketing depts will start listening.
Posted by: cc | 25 July 2009 at 05:46 PM