tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296483112557814728.post4061920241275838347..comments2019-06-29T00:02:54.618-07:00Comments on PerfectlyWriteFamilyTales: ‘Staying Alive With The Walking Dead’Natalie Woodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10782295299918125923noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296483112557814728.post-6503679250418449572012-11-06T07:42:42.958-08:002012-11-06T07:42:42.958-08:00Thanks for writing, John. Much appreciated. I'...Thanks for writing, John. Much appreciated. I've never done anything like this before and am unlikely to do so again for a long time as it fits no genre - except - hostile critics might say - for a good whinge! Under normal circumstances I would indeed have written an essay on my Arts blog - Alwayswriteagain - but I covered flash fiction there recently. Furthermore, I wanted to give readers a chance to see what I'm complaining about in context without having to flip from blog to blog. This is why I sandwiched the story in the manner above. But I must disagree with your concluding remark simply because - and apologies in advance if I appear offensive - I view stories about zombies, vampires et al as specious knock-about nonsense; a silly fad soon - I earnestly hope - to replaced by something else. What I tried to do - and quite obviously I failed - was to say that no invented 'undead' character could in any sense begin to approach the depths of characterisation met in the awful reality of Belsen, as recorded by Rev Hardman and Richard Dimbleby.Furthermore, I think mainstream publishers are encouraging it only because they see a good market for it and this is why one publisher has enlisted the services of high profile figures like the two women I mentioned above. Natalie Woodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10782295299918125923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296483112557814728.post-85141721720618605242012-11-06T00:20:15.216-08:002012-11-06T00:20:15.216-08:00While I enjoyed the flash fiction in the center, a...While I enjoyed the flash fiction in the center, and appreciate the highlight on the individual, I struggle to see how it makes any point about Gothic Fiction or Horror in general. I would have greatly preferred you not to include such lengthy artist statements about what the piece was supposed to mean, and rather write an essay on these things you dislike. It's particularly difficult for me to grasp for it is my experience that the existence and continuance of the horrible in reality does not invalidate interfacing or altering it in fiction.John Wiswellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07416044628686736927noreply@blogger.com