Bennett on being a writer (writing about his new book on HarperTeen’s MySpace blog!):
It’s simply not a writer’s place to teach people things or give anyone lessons. For some reason when you write books for teenagers this occasionally gets lumped in with the job description by well-meaning-types who don’t get it. But there is a great reason there is an occupation called High School Teacher, and that’s so no one else has to perform what seems like a totally horrible task. A writer has only one job (besides endless self-promotion and endeavors of “personal branding”) and that job is telling stories.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t take anything away from a story except entertainment or whatever. THE BLONDE OF THE JOKE is about a lot of things. It is about shoplifting and skankiness, yes, but it’s also about friendship and grief and individuality and independence. I know that I taught myself a lot of things while I was writing it, and I hope that everyone who reads it comes away with a lot to think about. You should be able to learn something from almost any piece of fiction. But readers are smart enough to draw their own conclusions. Not only do I not need to tell people what to think, but the ideal reader will be able to learn things from a good book that the author never even considered. It’s a mutual exploration, not a lesson. AND THAT IS THE POINT OF LITERATURE.
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