The Alaska Cabin Bookshelf


READ REALLY LOCAL
BY REBECCA GOODRICH




Bookpusher Column Dec 2011-Rebecca Goodrich

Christmas and other winter holidays--Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice--all signal the time we traditionally buy books. More than 70% of book sales occur in the last quarter of the calendar. When I was growing up, and even as an adult, The Night Before Christmas and O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi were reliable rituals, read in front of the fireplace. But more and more, we wonder what books are, and how we should buy them. Some of us wonder if we should bother to buy them at all.

For decades now, huge corporations have been buying up media, including publishing houses. The result has been a marked tendency to publish only the big names, the sure bets, and rarely risk investing in a book that was so good, or so edgy, or so unusual, it simply deserved to be published, as the family-owned houses had done, from the olden days of the printed word.

More and more, the world of the brick-and-mortar bookstore business that I entered back in 1972, has been steadily shredded by buy-outs and sell-outs. Electronics has both added to and enriched this chaos by liberating the desktop publisher in us all, creating a many-headed Hydra of published books, both superb and shameful.

Damn you, Random House! I shall publish my book myself, and online, too! And so, instead of 50,000 books being published every year, we sometimes have a million new titles per annum to contend with. And no one can. It becomes an impossible task to know all the good books, and all the good authors.

About here is where you could expect me to rant, and rightly so, about the trouble writers and publishers and booksellers now find themselves in. And readers, too.We hear that Barnes and Noble is ordering many fewer paper books now, and by setting up Kindle service desks right in the front part of their stores, are dramatically urging their customers to buy only electronic versions of books.

When I went to Homer this November, I spoke with the owner of Old Inlet Books. He told me that he’s lost 60% of his client base since Kindle, Nook, and other e-readers have emerged. Sometimes he has a good day selling real books, or some rare books, but it’s not looking as happy for his store as he’d like, or that I’d like for him.

So what is really going on? What is truly important in this morass of media and merchandising? So what if big corporations grab up all our book-buying money? In an way, wouldn’t that be good, so we’d all share the same cultural input, like the good old days of just three TV broadcasting stations. Just kidding!

The chaos that is our culture has brought us many benefits. But it brings along confusion. When we buy books, is there a right way, a wrong way? Who are we hurting and who are we benefiting? Big important questions.But not the question of the winter season, which is ancient and huge.And has to do with books, all kinds of books.Because books, whatever shape or media they come in, have to do with knowledge.

Lying beneath knowledge is something even more ancient and archetypal. No wonder many of us agonize over buying a bestseller from a multinational company, or a bunch of books through Amazon, (which takes an immense cut, far larger than the amount ever taken by brick-and-mortar stores, for its service).

Last year I picked up a copy of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine, the January/February 2011 issue, and cruised the pages. This had been a staple reading material back in my salad days, and indeed, having passed it 60th year, a go-to for writers and readers of these genres for decades.

James Stoddard short story, Christmas at Hostage Canyon, seemed a simple, pleasant little foray into a child’s family holiday experience at his aunt and uncle’s home.Shortly though, little Eric is accosted by an evil elf, who announces to him, “Death.” No one else sees this creature, of course.”Death on Christmas Eve!”

Eric, youngest of his family, knows that Santa Claus, that fat pudgy elf, is a myth. So surely this threatening creature must also be not actually real. He reminds his family he wants a baseball bat and the Monster Hero video game for Christmas, and tries to get to sleep early.

He wakes at midnight. There is the splintering of the big glass window downstairs, objects hitting the floorboards. No one else stirs, so he goes down to investigate what is surely nothing more than the tree having fallen over. Or something.

Eric has been afraid of the dark, but had thought he’d mastered that silly fear. Now, though, now he ventures into a deeper blackness.He takes a flashlight, and finds not only chaos, but the grim elf waiting for him, holding the Christmas tree-top angel, decapitated. Now the dark world, the older world, is in command. But the boy tries to stand up to it. “Who are you? What do you want?”

He is staring at humanity’s ancient nemesis: “ . . . the longest and darkest night of the year. There are principles and dominions of which you know nothing, Eric, powers which humans can neither imagine nor cope with . . .”

His adversary, certain of his triumph, gloats. “There are awful places in the world, places with dreadful names. Auschwitz, the Colosseum of Rome, the Solovki Gulag. Wherever your pitiful human lives have been cheapened, wherever the darkness of human hearts manifest itself, the barrier between my dimension and yours is weakened. This is Hostage Canyon, a minor outpost in your long history of atrocities. . . .”

So the boy is doomed. Yet he looks for a weapon, and sees his baseball bat, half-buried under the stockings that have been torn down from the mantelpiece.But the elf has him petrified, as he brings his claw to Eric’s throat.The fear overcomes everything, any thought of fighting back.

Then the demon mutters that’s it’s a shame to kill one so young. And suggests Eric name a substitute sacrifice. At first, relieved, he agrees. Then the elf says he’ll just nip upstairs, and kill Eric’s older brother. It’ll look like natural causes, he says, no one will ever be the wiser, and Eric will still be alive to comfort his parents.

“Don’t take my brother!” begs Eric. The elf brings all his powers of persuasion to bear, reminding the boy that he, Eric, is the special one in his mother’s heart, that his parents will get over the untimely death of the older boy. But it has to be one of them; there are rules.

The child realizes his enemy is asking for permission, for agreement to one death or the other.

Eric also realizes there is something the monster is afraid of. He doesn’t know what it is, but there, standing in the light of the flames of the Christmas log fire, he tries to discover what it is, to delay what the elf wants done right now, right now.

Suddenly, the flames in the fireplace are extinguished, and something, someone, comes down the chimney with a thump.

The dark elf squeals protest at the new figure, who is tall, and powerful, dressed in the traditional red, trimmed with white fur. And armed with a bright sword that illuminates the room. The elf pulls out his own weapon, one that eats light.

There is a Santa Claus, thinks the terrified boy. And the evil elf is going to kill him. The battle is ferocious, but finally, the elf has the red-armored Saint cornered. Then Eric remembers his baseball bat, and whacks the evil gnome, distracting him just long enough for his defender to recover, and defeat the dark adversary.

Father Christmas, Papa Noel, Santa Claus, tries to explain what has just happened. “When the forces of darkness seeks to enter our dimension, it is my task to prevent them. The struggle is fierce and continuous. . . . .You were willing to sacrifice your own life for Daniels, and that gave me both time to reach you and power to aid you. Your tiny resistance was all I needed to break through.”

Eric notes that this Santa Claus is nothing like the stories. The archetype replies: “My task is battle. I am the Defender against the darkest of all nights.”

In the darkest nights of our human story, there are only a few weapons we have with which to withstand. One is bravery. The other is knowledge.

This, I believe, is the true reason we give so many books to those we love in the holy days of winter, when all we have is our courage to endure, and the knowledge that spring will come.

Books, in whatever form, are knowledge. Given with love, they help us to persevere.

So, support your local bookstore, and your local authors.Give the gift of love and knowledge. Give books.


Alaska Cabin Bookshelf column © 2011 Rebecca A. Goodrich.
All Rights Reserved. Found in Anchorage Tidbits, The Ester Republic, Alaska Women’s Network, and Make A Scene, published in Wasilla, Alaska. In F Zine as Book Pusher.

Raised by an inventor, an English major, and several cats, Rebecca Goodrich has worked in the book business as store clerk, buyer, publisher’s rep, and has published two chapbooks. Award-winning poet and freelance writer Goodrich left the glitter of California for a houseboat in Dutch Harbor in 1994. In Unalaska she was a writer and columnist for The Dutch Harbor Fisherman, a stringer for KDLG radio, and live model for artists on the island. Now in Anchorage, she edits, writes, and markets, mostly Alaska authors. (She promises not to review her clients in this column. Mention, yes. Review, no, though others are invited to do so.)
Contact Rebecca Goodrich and Alaska Cabin Bookshelf at:
scribing@hotmail.com, or phone 907.243.0159.
Alaska Cabin Bookshelf © 2011 Rebecca A. Goodrich. All Rights Reserved.



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Your library - find out what's happening

Anchorage:
Z.J. Loussac Library

Fairbanks:
Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Libraries and Regional Center

Homer:
Friends of Homer Library

Juneau:
Juneau Public Libraries

Statewide:
UAA/APU Consortium Library

UAF

News Letters:
AlaskaWomenSpeak.org
A voice for women in the Great Land from all walks of life. This is a quarterly publication run by all volunteers. Women from all over Alaska submit articles, poetry, photographs and art. It's available in bookstores around the state or by subscription.
AlaskaWomenSpeak
PO Box 210045
Anchorage, AK
99521-0045


Check out Alaskan Authors

In spite of our busy lives, it seems that every woman I talk to has just read a great book she wants to share. E-mail the Web Goddess with recommendations and short reviews. We'll add it to the list.

AWN is an Amazon.com Associate! Order a book through our homepage and you'll get incredibly fast service (one of our members in Bethel got a book in just 2 days!) and AWN will get a percentage of the sale as a fundraiser. You can also order CD's and videos through Amazon. Need to order several copies of a book? Use AWN's page and you'll be helping the organization. Thanks for your support!

Writer's Groups

40 Below Ink
An independent press with an Alaskan attitude.

Alaska Center for the Book - meets on the 3rd Wednesday of each month at the Loussac Library in Anchorage.

Alaska Professional Communicators (formerly Alaska Press Women) meet for lunch on the first Thursday monthly at the Golden Lion Hotel in Anchorage. Meetings begin at 11:30. Reservations required.

Alaska Sisters in Crime- meet monthly on the 2nd Tuesday of the month in the fireside area at Barnes & Noble 7- 9 pm in Anchorage, Alaska

Alaska Women Write - meet Thursdays, 6-8 pm at 917 W. 12th St. downtown Anchorage.

Alaska Writers Homestead
A home on the Web for writers from Alaska, and those who share Alaska’s pioneering spirit.

Anchorage Writer's Group - meet Saturdays at 9:30 am at Title Wave Books in Anchorage.

Writers with Wings - meets the first and second Thursday 5:30 - 7:30 pm at the Friendly Planet in downtown Juneau.

Central Peninsula Writers' Group meets the first and third Thursday in the Kenai Library at 6:30 pm.

Femmes of the Fourth Friday - meet Fridays at 7 pm at Fireside Books in Palmer.

TaleSpinners MatSu Writers - meet every second and fourth Thursday in Wasilla. FMIC Avril 907.357.2177

New Writer's Group - meet the first Saturday every month at 2:00PM. FMI: Barbara at 907.790.3038.

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Many fine things can be done in a day if you don’t always make that day tomorrow.
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