I met journalist and writer Pat Washburn online first, she interviewed me for a news article a few years ago. Then we met in person when she helped me with my nerdy math and computer science homework. Pat has been a great friend to me, especially during the past few weeks. I am so happy she agreed to write a little something for the blag! Here you go.
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Tom Brown and Dan Brown are both guys from New England who create books. Once you get beyond that, though, the common ground ends.
Dan Brown, of course, wrote the bestselling, much-reviled “Da Vinci Code,” which contained just enough pseudo-historical, pseudo-religious mystery to interest a mainstream audience without actually challenging anyone’s world view.
Tom Brown’s first graphic novel, “Hopeless, Maine,” written with his wife Nimue Brown, is considerably less comfortable. The mysteries are not safely locked away in museums and castles – they’re inside all of us, and particularly in the denizens of a creepy Maine island where our heroine, Salamandra, lives.
In Dan Brown’s novels, the male protagonist routinely falls into bed with the female protagonist without the slightest bit of dialogue or action indicating why they’re attracted to one another. In Tom Brown’s world, there’s no sex – Owen is Salamandra’s friend, not her boyfriend – yet you get to see them grow closer to one another, learning to trust and relate in a way that’s entirely believable. Well, if you can use the word “believable” about a story where the chandeliers have eyes and the dolls have demons.
I read The Da Vinci Code and even, for my sins, saw the movie. Yet I couldn’t have told you the hero’s name until I started looking up links for this piece. Salamandra, though, will stay with me forever.
My point in writing this is not to tell you to read “Hopeless, Maine,” although I think you should. (And look, I totally hate graphic novels. But I can’t stay away from this one.)
It’s to challenge you to take a look at your own creativity.
We’d all like to have Dan Brown’s sales numbers. (See Clive James imperfectly concealing his professional jealousy over the fact that Dan Brown’s new novel, Inferno, is likely to significantly outsell James’ own painstaking translation of Dante’s work. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/05/14/clive-james-dan-brown/2155487/)
But would we like them enough to write so badly that we inspire parodies like this one? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/14/dan-brown-inferno-first-look)
What are you creating? Who is your audience? Are you a Tom Brown or a Dan Brown?
This content © 2013 Pat Washburn.
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