Dean has a copy of that.

If he doesn't, he certainly should.

Does A Man for All Seasons have a major arts-related component?

Not really. I was more thinking of it as being a good example of how a historical clash with monarchy was used for art that explored acting on personal conscience and which continues to be relevant to any struggle with authority.

(Also, I love it. "Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil? ... And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you - where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down -- and you're just the man to do it -- do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!")

I loved Summer of my German Soldier when we read it in ninth grade. I also read The Hiding Place around the same time and enjoyed it, although it's quite harrowing stuff.

I'm reading two books at the moment - Saturday by Ian McEwan and Man in the Dark by Paul Auster. Two responses to a post-9/11 world, handled very differently. I adore the whole 'Mrs Dalloway for the 21st century' aspect of Saturday, as well as how very British the narrator is. Meanwhile, as much as I'm an Auster fan, the writing-about-writing perspective s starting to get repetitive in his books - for me, anyway. But the story might lift that yet.

Excellent column, Barb. This response, though...

Professional Standards imply that the author will continue to create stories the readers will love and deliver them in a timely manner. When authors fail to live up to that standard, the readers are suffering a far greater emotional let-down than when McDonald’s doesn’t get the order right.

...was the most boggling example of You Are The Problem I could've imagined.

And, if I may parse a bit, this phrase is a particular gem of mealy mouthed weaseldom: "Professional Standards imply..."

It is implicit that you are NOT a professional if you don't service her needs to the exclusion of any other considerations.

What?

Man, people are just cRaXY.

It is implicit that you are NOT a professional if you don't service her needs to the exclusion of any other considerations.

The profession her comment brought to mind was not authorial. Nor is it legal in most US states.

Man, people are just cRaXY.

I wish the excerpt of her response was just an out-of-context bit that exaggerates her craxy, but in fact she's craxy to the bone.

Nor is it legal in most US states.

There's always Nevada!

"Dear Kimber An,

Thank you for taking the time to read my column and respond. Thank you also for perfectly illustrating my point. My editor already asked if I was using a sock puppet, that's how incredibly apt you were as a point-proving loopy loo. Ta, ever so.

--Barb"

Author as gumball machine. We see it in the fanfic community too (though I know it's a thousand times more irritating when it's your livelihood).