My Top 100 Reasons for Not Comparing Books... EVER

Because of my recent postings on Wuthering Heights sites there has been rather a lot of talk about DANNY's resemblance, or dissimilarity, to other books.

It's a strange discussion for me, this one, because I don't think DANNY resembles anything but DANNY. I never really have. But, that said, some readers obviously do compare books against each other. Certainly many readers compare books to each other on a preference scale. And film buffs definitely do the same with films.

Why?

I'm really not sure. It's not something I do personally - all DANNY's comparisons come from readers/reviewers - so I'm not at all sure what it is people get out of it.

What is Shakespeare's best play? Which Alien do you prefer? What is Johnny Depp's best film?

My answers? Othello, three and absolutely no idea.

As you can see I do have answers, mostly, but the answer to question one is not because it's Shakespeare's best play but because I like it best. The Alien question is a bit different, I must admit, because I do actually think three's the best Alien. But that tells you more about me than Alien.

As to the Johnny Depp question how the hell can you answer that? He's made such a variety of movies you'd be comparing comedies to blockbusters to period dramas to art movies. Why would you do that? How would you do that?

And yet, humans do love them good old comparative lists. Empire film magazine runs Hundred Best lists all the time. And they are total horseshit, usually having more to do with fashion and currently promoted titles than good art. They also have a hell of a lot to do with having balls instead of a cunt, this being boy-land and all.

Part of it has to be collecting. A lot of people who are into comparative listings do seem to love collecting. You only have to look through internet reading lists and book communities to see lots of people trying to accrue large collections of books they've read. I suppose it's rather like being a member of an exclusive club. "Ooh, I've read 400 books, me." "Oh, that's nothing, I've read my Gran's weight in books." "So what? I've read to Detroit and back and I live in Scunthorpe."

This is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string?' question again. How do you measure one book or film against another?

DANNY bears very little resemblance to any other book - no other, in my opinion - but there are people out there who like DANNY and they do see a resemblance, so who am I to argue? And it definitely does help with marketing. People do like to have a peg they can hang a book on. Obviously, also, there are so many new books out there, all clamouring for attention, how do people sift through them to see if there is something they like?

Easy, look for books in the same genre, in the style of, with the same plot themes... and so it goes on.

It does make it very difficult to sell them something new, however. Unique doesn't work as an adjective any more, and neither does original. They've been so overused in the arts, particularly in publishing, that people, quite understandably, do not believe them.

When you pick up the next 'new' crime thriller with a divorced, scruffy detective, who drinks too much, and who bends the rules but gets results, who falls for the wrong woman, who... ad nauseam, and it is described as, "The sensational (which part would that be?) new (new how, exactly?) thriller from the hottest (what, as in sexy?) most original (God help us) voice in crime writing today," you can see why it doesn't work.

Poison Pixie uses the occasional comparisons that are made by readers to help sell DANNY. Which brings us nicely back to Wuthering Heights

I can see a correlation between DANNY and Wuthering Heights, but chiefly in its lead pairing, with some slight resemblances between the Conley and the Linton set ups. There is also the isolation factor. But after that you are pushing it.

I can't, for example, see any connection between American Psycho and DANNY. Now, I would have said, that as I have only seen the film I might be missing something in the book - and that may well be true - but one of the readers who thought it was alike is a filmmaker, so you'd assume she knows what she's talking about. The other reader who thought it bore a resemblance was a professional critic for a national magazine. We assume she's read the book and she also knows what she's talking about. So, somewhere, for some people, American Psycho lurks in DANNY.

Of course, in this instance, no-one can say it was influential as I haven't read it, but it's still perfectly valid.

So, what were DANNY's influences?

None, consciously. In fact, I deliberate set out to write something no-one had done before because I was tired of reading the same old, weary, middle class crap.

I couldn't find the book I wanted to read so, as the quote goes, I wrote one. But, looking at it now with hindsight I can see influences. Unfortunately they are so obscure I can very seldom use them in publicity.

The biggest single influence is Jacobean Tragedy. But, unless you see very specific theatre, you won't be that familiar with the style. Even studying it at university doesn't cut it. Reading plays is not the same thing as watching them. But not only did I see The Duchess of Malfi, The Revenger's Tragedy, The White Devils, Tamburlaine the Great, and many more, as a receptive teenager, I saw The Citizen's Theatre productions of those plays, considered at that time to be at the foremost edge of avant garde theatre in the world, not just Britain.

They were also often substantially rewritten by Robert David Macdonald who worked there at the time (he also wrote the De Sade show, another very influential work) an absolutely amazing writer/director. They had stunning design and a fantastic stable of young actors (many of whom are movie actors now).

It was a total experience that left a lasting impression. Every night (and I did go every night) it was bitter rivalry, sex, intrigue, death, incest, perversion and wholesale slaughter. It was as dark as dark could be and I loved it.

After that it was David Goodis, Jim Thompson, James Hadley Chase, the lesser and slightly weirder crime writers. Thompson in particular was a writer of such succinctness and strangeness it literally takes your breath away. Still, to this day, no crime writer has ever bettered "This World Then the Fireworks" but how many people in Britain have ever heard of him? Even in the US, his home, he is really only known among aficionados. Ah, nobody does psychos like Jim...

Hey, look, like Seven Steps to Kevin Bacon we might just have found DANNY's link to American Psycho after all.