(Okay, maybe not, but I can't help but feel that despite the Blackie write-in, she still wasn't given fair consideration. Call me paranoid, but that's what I think.)
Well, Uggie has apparently landed himself a book deal. That's right. Uggie's memoir is slated to come out this October. I mean, somebody else is writing the book for him, as "acting" abilities aside, he is in fact still a dog. I'm not sure he even knows as many words as Elka, but I still wouldn't rely upon her to write a book. Heck, I don't even let her blog.
On one hand, it can be cute for dogs to narrate their own stories. I don't object to it implicitly. An entire book, though....I mean, I liked Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe quite a lot as a child but this book, published by Simon & Schuster, is not indicated as being slated for children. Maybe it is. Or maybe it's adult non fiction.
The unreliable narrator is an interesting fictional tool; would a dog be an unreliable narrator, when giving his biography? Will it just be cutesy? I think I'd prefer a non first person narration when reading a dog's biography, really (like Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin, which I haven't read yet, I confess).
Really, I don't know what I'm complaining about. I guess it's sour grapes, to a degree; somebody's making bank on this little dog, because people are suckers for dog books. I don't know who gets the money if a dog is in a movie. Does the owner get a flat fee? Is the dog's food paid for? It's not like a dog is considered legally competent for the purposes of contractual obligation, that's up to their person. It's just another weird thing, like the dog wedding.
Tiring thinking about it all, isn't it!
ReplyDeleteIt kind of is!
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