Damn Write! Did the Watchman kill a Mockingbird? NO!

Some people just need to calm down.

A while back I made mention of the announcement that famed author Harper Lee was releasing a “new” book, “Go Set a Watchman”, which was a book that follows the characters from “To Kill a Mockingbird” 30 years later. Well, the time has arrived that that book is going to be released and what do you know, there is a huge uproar about what supposedly goes on in the book, especially the characterization of Atticus Finch.

Honestly I was a little surprised from the reaction of people getting all worked up about how the character is portrayed and people having fits saying that it ruins the Hero that a lot of people cherished so much for decades. I thought that reaction only came about in the geek circles. Yes, the general public is having a “You ruined my childhood” fit. I always did hate those. So I came up with some tips to keep in mind if this whole thing is really going to truly upset you.

–The Book was never intended to be a sequel: As this book is being released, people are either not in the know, or don’t want to know, that “Go Set a Watchman” was never written as a sequel to Mockingbird. It was a first draft. This was the authors working draft that she submitted to a publisher and the publisher sent back saying that the story of Scout as a kid was a much better story. She did and there you go. It’s not like Ms. Lee sat down and decided to pen another book after all these years.

Here’s that thing, as an author (all be it nowhere near as good) The draft a writer works with before a copy is sent to an editor is NEVER what you see in the final product. NO ONE is that good. Characters change, events change. Things change. That was the whole point of To Kill a Mockingbird being written! A professional sat down, took a look, and said that this book wasn’t quite what should be released, Harper sat down and wrote a different story and it went on to be a classic. Get a Watchmen was found and released because Harper Lee was famous for never releasing another novel and someone wanted to cash in. Pretty much the same way someone will find musicians unreleased tracks, clean them up, and then release an album after the artist is dead.

 

–This is not the movie. Although the movie did the book justice, there were differences and I think people have a hard time separating the character of Atticus Finch from the book and Gregory Peck’s performance from the movie made in 1962. There is absolutely nothing wrong with liking Peck’s take on the character either! My point is that no matter what happens with the release of Watchmen, That performance, and that movie aren’t going to change. No one is going to look at the movie now and say “Well, finch turned out to be a racist so the movie is shit”. If Gregory Peck is what you picture from To Kill a Mockingbird, then you are going to be just fine.

 

–The Hype. C’mon. Seriously. Supposedly all these press agencies got an advanced copy of the book and the only thing ALL of them report on was portraying Finch as old, crodgedy, and racist? Really? Ladies and Gentleman, that is exactly what the publishers wanted. They wanted to get people talking, they wanted to get people interested. This book became the biggest pre-ordered book since the last Harry Potter book. you think that happened by accident? Nope. If you got in the uproar and were all upset by what was being dished out by the press, congrats, you just feel right in line with what the publishers wanted you to do.

 

–It’s Alabama in the 1950’s. Yeah.  A 70 something year old white guy in Alabama in the early 1950’s was probably not going to be the most tolerant person to begin with. Don’t act so surprised. Going back to this being a first draft, maybe Harper decided to make things different with her new book and make Atticus a better person. Not the other way around.

 

–YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ IT: Yup. Unless you are a professional book critic, no one is forcing you to read this book at all! Your life won’t end if you decide not to read or buy this book. You don’t like the way this book was discovered and released? Don’t buy it. You think things are a little shady when it comes to the motives behind releasing it? Don’t buy it. Don’t like how the characters turned out? Don’t buy it. Simple as that.

 

See, here is my take. This book is going to end up like the sequels done to a lot of the big movies over time. It’s going to be a buzz at the time, but history will just regulate it to a footnote. The “you know there was a sequel to that” kind of thing. This isn’t going to hold up like the second book of the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  You probably won’t be missing much by skipping this.

So with that, just remember that this book being released isn’t the end of the world. If you love To Kill a Mockingbird, this book shouldn’t change that and by the sounds it, it likely won’t. While many of us first read this book as school kids in reading class, no one is forcing you to read this book and that by not reading it, you aren’t shortening your life span any. Trust me, I’ve seen this situation way to many times before to think otherwise.

 

SPEAKING OF NEW BOOKS!

 

Yup, I have a new one. It’s a new story, an adult book (no kiddies), called Unconventional. It is a few short stories of a group of Cosplay models working at a weekend convention and all the “fun” they encounter during the weekend. Full of all kinds of saucy goodness!

You can find it, as well as my other books HERE