So I did say that I wouldn't use this blog to post my views about this that and the other like everyone else, but now and then you read something in the news that just spurs you on to comment...I'll probably offset this by adding a pretty picture at the end...cos y'know, that makes it art innit?
Anyway, to the point...I came across this story on bbc news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5029984.stm
Some of you will already know her as the Wandering Scribe but I'm slow at finding out about all of these internet phenomena so I haven't been following the whole sorry tale. At first I was a little amazed that someone had lived for so long in their car and come out the other side. Then I was confused that she'd blogged the whole experience despite being homeless. Then I was slightly annoyed that she'd blogged the whole experience for so long instead of finding a home.
We all know that homelessness is a terrible thing. We can see how it trashes people's lives..well possibly..it depends on whether you bother to look at the bloke/woman sitting next to the cash machine while you get some money out to go and mash up your liver on a friday/saturday/sunday/every night (delete where applicable). However, the one thing that strikes me about all this is that she never truly lost everything...sure, she had no home, but she had a car...she was in receipt of state benefits to buy petrol and food...she had an asset in the form of her car which she could have sold to pay for some kind of lodging temporarily which could have led to finding a job because she had an address..etc etc. She could have got out of her situation in many ways because she's not a stupid person...in fact she comes across as very intelligent and resourceful but yet she seemed to choose to remain on the streets to soak up the experience and write about it.
I can't help feeling extremely disappointed in her after reading her story, especially now that it's been picked up by a publisher. Its not that a big publishing house really cares about her welfare, its that stories that make you cry sell books. She'll probably appear on Richard and Judy (or whoever it is these days) and it'll most likely be a bestseller but it just feels like she didn't really try hard enough to escape her situation despite being in a relatively good position (compared to those who sleep in doorways) to make a change. I'm not even sure if her writing would have been good enough to get a deal if she was just writing fiction...I know I'm not a fan of her slightly over-melodramatic writing style.
But hey, I'm not a writer so what do I know?
Let's just hope it doesn't turn out to be another James Frey situation.
Anyway, to the point...I came across this story on bbc news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5029984.stm
Some of you will already know her as the Wandering Scribe but I'm slow at finding out about all of these internet phenomena so I haven't been following the whole sorry tale. At first I was a little amazed that someone had lived for so long in their car and come out the other side. Then I was confused that she'd blogged the whole experience despite being homeless. Then I was slightly annoyed that she'd blogged the whole experience for so long instead of finding a home.
We all know that homelessness is a terrible thing. We can see how it trashes people's lives..well possibly..it depends on whether you bother to look at the bloke/woman sitting next to the cash machine while you get some money out to go and mash up your liver on a friday/saturday/sunday/every night (delete where applicable). However, the one thing that strikes me about all this is that she never truly lost everything...sure, she had no home, but she had a car...she was in receipt of state benefits to buy petrol and food...she had an asset in the form of her car which she could have sold to pay for some kind of lodging temporarily which could have led to finding a job because she had an address..etc etc. She could have got out of her situation in many ways because she's not a stupid person...in fact she comes across as very intelligent and resourceful but yet she seemed to choose to remain on the streets to soak up the experience and write about it.
I can't help feeling extremely disappointed in her after reading her story, especially now that it's been picked up by a publisher. Its not that a big publishing house really cares about her welfare, its that stories that make you cry sell books. She'll probably appear on Richard and Judy (or whoever it is these days) and it'll most likely be a bestseller but it just feels like she didn't really try hard enough to escape her situation despite being in a relatively good position (compared to those who sleep in doorways) to make a change. I'm not even sure if her writing would have been good enough to get a deal if she was just writing fiction...I know I'm not a fan of her slightly over-melodramatic writing style.
But hey, I'm not a writer so what do I know?
Let's just hope it doesn't turn out to be another James Frey situation.
Comments
evasion
there's a lot to be said for voluntary homelessness. infact, being a bum only sounds sucky when you spend all your time being drunk or high on glue.
i guess it comes down to the word "voluntary".
i hope they put the posts in the book in the right order. so it starts with the most recent. that would make me happy.
so where's the pretty picture?