to be saddened and confused by this section in Waterstones

[SlightlyUndead]

I know this is going to come out wrong and I will probably get flamed...

There are now so many paperback biographies/ autobigraphies written by adults who were abused as children that it has it's own section on our local Waterstones. I remember seeing David Peltzer interviewed a few years ago when "A Child Called It" was first published. It was one of the first
bestsellers of this kind, the interview was harrowing and deeply upsetting and I understood that writing it down was a kind of therapy for him. If the process of writing a book about such awful experiences helps with the healing process in some way, I'm all for it. But what I don't really understand is the 'popularity' of such books. I did read 'A Child Called It' in the light of all the publicity and obviously found it very upsetting. I am not saying we should 'close our eyes' to such things but surely if you really care, you can donate to/do work for the NSPCC or Childline. I have seen mothers in the playground reading one of these books after another and I just can't help feeling that there is something a bit gratuitous (spelling?) and voyeristic about it. The more 'horrific' the childhood, the better read?

Oh this does seem to have come out a but wrong but what I am trying to say is that it seems that these books are now a reading genre in themeselves now and I just find it disturbing that there is an appetite for it. But then I don't ever read any 'gory details' in the newspaper if it involves children being hurt....

Maybe I am missing something? I am happy to have it explained to me.

GetOrf, Getorf thiw thread and go and answer all my questions.

All right, Miss

Please, Don't Hit Me (Again), Miss.

'Ma, my publisher won't give me a new contract, he says the bottom's dropped out of the misery lit market'

Ma, Not the Comfy Chair, I'll have Nothing to Write About!

And I have always liked to watch Day Of The Dead when cross or unhappy - no matter how bad things are, I am not trapped in an underground bunker with psychotic soldiers and a load of raging zombies outside.

How did that end btw (day of dead).

Miseryporn is awful. People that read it often seem to think it makes them more deep and empathic and of-the-people as well.

A lot of them are ghostwritten. There's a very succesful ghostwriter called Andrew Crofts who has written stacks of them - at least 10 from his website: www.andrewcrofts.com/NonFiction.html including 'please Daddy no'. He's also ghost written various sleb memoirs for soap stars, people on big brother etc.

I swear i went into whsmiths a few years ago and they were under a label 'misery lit'.

At my work there are shelves of paperbacks which people take to read on the train and return.

They are all either misery porn or chick lit.

I left my copy of Wittgenstein's Tractatus there before going on maternity leave. I am confident that it's still there.

The 'A Child Called Shit' excerpts were very funny.

Pauline claimed she had to wear a potato sack with holes cut in it instead of a school uniform.

I simply cannot comprehend anyone wanting to read this stuff.

To have those details seared into their brains.

Cathy Glass is actually my maiden name (but I'm not her, iyswim!).

God, was my mother embarrassed when the first of her books came out and she had to explain to all her friends that it wasn't me writing about my terrible life!

SIL devours these books. Before they became popular she used to hoover up all those 'ooh, aren't forrin men horrid' types (Princess, Not Without My Daughter etc. And before that she read Virginia Adams...

rofl Lovecat, your poor mum!

SGB - Didn't you start writing a spoof one in the last thread on this subject. I think it was called "Tortured, Murdered and Dug up to be Fucked on Sundays".

Please feel free to continue your literary endevours.

I read one by accident - it started out as a story about a woman who 'found out' that her father had killed a little girl in a high-profile murder (must have been in 1950s or 60s Glasgow). She had a pretty horrible childhood.

I thought it was fiction when I picked it up and I can't NOT read something when I start it.

wahwahwah I read that book also. Picked it up at work on night shifts.

I did read some 'tragic' true life shite a few years ago (before Smiths et wl became flooded with them). I cant read them now- awful.

One girl gave a very graphic account of her father performing a sex act on her and vice versa- it felt awful and grubby to read and Im sure it would be wanking material for some disgusting perv.

I enjoy true life stories that dont involve horrendous child abuse- Niki shisler (fragile) for example. excellent read. not bollocks

I am far too lazy to write an actual Whole Spoof - I just like coming up with titles.
Forced To Eat My Own Cock By My Crackhead Mother, anyone?
OR how about (with a nod to my dear dear pals at Planet Sad and the original 'Icky' list) Misery Lit Lite? For people who don't want the really awful stuff.
So you could have...
Oh Muuuuuuum That's Not Enough Pocket Money.
Left In The Back Seat For 20 Minutes!
Daddy, Where's My Chips?
A Child Told Off A Bit.
Etc.

i have enough reading reports and files about childen going through this shit. i certainly wouldn't give up my leisure time to read it too.

can't think why anyone would

SGB, how boring am I to even remember this months later, but tuppence for a gob job on shit street cannot be bettered.

Lol at misery lit lite

Mum made me wash the dishes

No daddy no more green beans

She spit wiped my face!

Isn't it heartening that children who have experience such abuse are able to get a full education and emerge fully literate and able to write novels, acquire an agent and a publisher..? we hardly need the "disadvantaged child premium" in schools, all we need do is tell kids to save it all up and put it in print.

I suggest "Ma, I've run out of Dom Perignon, go and find a couple of orphans and a chimney sweep" or "Not in the face just yet Da, I'm writing notes and my pencil point just snapped"
or "Da didn't stop till I offered him 95% of the royalties".

or "The tooth fairy only left 50p"

Well - if people didn't keep buying them Waterstones wouldn't be able to keep selling them let alone dedicate a specific genre to them. Yuk but .

Curse you SGB, 'Tuppence For a Gob Job on Shit Street', has been making me rofl all day. I couldn't concentrate on reading bedtime stories, because I was too busy trying to think about how they could turn it into a musical.