Give a writer a break, here (Kingyo Used Books)

I came across this bit of a review in one of the brief moments I was able to look at some other people's blogs in the last six months (I promise I'll be more faithful in December once my commitments for this semester end), and it made me think as a writer.

"For all the tears and shouting, however, Kingyo Used Books is dramatically unpersuasive. The stories are too literal, positing a simple, direct connection between the content of a book and a reader’s subsequent behavior; it’s as if I read Middlemarch then decided to dump my pedantic boyfriend — sure, it could happen, but literature tends to effect us in subtler, less obvious ways, influencing our perception of things, rather than what we do. "

While I don't disagree with these statements, I wonder if maybe we need to cut the author a little slack.  If the author didn't show that simple, direct connection that leads to action, these would be stories about people making not-really dramatic, not-exactly life-changing realizations about stuff.  Realizations do not make for riveting manga.  Characters who don't take action are considered the bane of novel and short story writers' existences.  It is a very rare author who can make people having a conversation interesting enough to be a single story, even rarer for people coming to mental conclusions or being subtly influenced by things they read.  Think of trying to do it lots of times as part of a series.  Yeah.  Difficult.

I suspect Kingyo's purpose is not pedantic, not, "You should read manga because it will change your life." 

It can change you, sure.  What we read can influence us and probably does in a lot of subtle, unconscious ways.  I remember when a friend of mine finally read books from my favorite series.  He said he saw a lot of similarities between me and the main character.  I never consciously tried to be like that main character (who is in the military, crippled, living in the future, and slightly psychotic), but the fact that I've read the books about him more than a dozen times has left a mark on who I am that someone else who knew me could connect and see.  Again, not the stuff of short-story length drama.

We've probably all read books that have influenced our behaviors and personalities and even changed us, and when I read Kingyo, that's what gives me the warm fuzzies.  People can make connections through books (to themselves, to others), and sometimes it's something they read (on top of all the other things that have been going on in their lives for years that we can't see) that allows them to change or shows them their need for change in a way that they can't exactly articulate, a way that's often quite sideways from what actually literally happened in the book.

The literalness in Kingyo may seen ham-handed, but it lets us get access to the information about obscure manga and see that people still believe in the power of books to change people literally and figuratively even in a different culture.  Kingyo may not change your life, but it might add to your reading list and your store of knowledge, something every bibliophile can appreciate.

Also, in that series of reviews was this awesome quote:  "I’m normally immune to whimsy."  Wouldn't Normally Immune to Whimsy be a great name for a rock band?