I’ve been reading Margo Lanagan’s posts over at Inside a Dog, where she talks about her travels in the US and such. On a whim I checked out the bio they have for her (you can see it here), and was struck by her answer to the question ‘My favourite book is…’.
I wasn’t perplexed by her answers – you can’t really object to someone else’s answer to that question for all sorts of good reasons – but by the question itself. I love books, and have probably read thousands since I first learnt to read. I love music, and couldn’t tell you how many songs have given me enormous pleasure. And movies, I could watch a day away in front of a screen. But, you want me to pick just one? Why? What is the need to have a ‘best’? Does anyone really have such a thing? I don’t. Not at all.
If I love a given work of art for some reason, I generally love it for a different reasons than I love some other work of art. I mean, I love Bernard Malamud’s The Fixer. It’s a shattering powerful novel that has haunted me for years. Malamud’s portrayal of Yakov Bok is extraordinary. I also love Terry Pratchett’s Small Gods, which is bright and sharp and funny. It resonates in a different part of my mind. Do I like one more than the other? No. I like them different from one another. It’s the same if you’re playing “Highway to Hell” or “So What?”. The driving power of AC/DC is irresistible, but so is Davis’s quintet.
Anyhow, I guess I’ll probably be asked the question again at some time in the future, and I’ll try to answer it to be polite, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. Does it make sense to you?
I could name a favorite two books, and a favorite two or three movies. Wouldn’t have a hope of narrowing music down.
I agree totally with your argument… it’s often a matter of what mood you’re in, or where your life is at… plus would you say your favorite book was the one you recently enjoyed or the one that blew you away when you were fifteen?… all those kinds of questions make the question kind of redundant…
That said, I don’t mind people asking it… it’s kind of a springboard for talking about cool stuff… but it would be better asked in more broad terms.
I don’t mind picking “favorites”… I figure it’s like a snapshot of my mind at one particular moment… rather than some rigid self-definition that i’m obliged to stick to… and i’d hope whoever read my answers took them in that context…
This is my difficulty with awards (said the past and current awards juror). Even if you’re looking at, say, just sf novels, there’s such a breadth of material and approaches that it’s very difficult to say that one is “better” than the other. Or rather, that any judgment of betterness is going to be about what you personally like (character? sensawunda?) rather than any objective standard of betterness. I remember this came home to me very forcefully when looking at the Noreascon Retro Hugo novel list: Fahrenheit 451, More than Human, Childhood’s End, Mission of Gravity… how on earth are you supposed to choose between them?
(Also, by god, 1953 was a good year!)
It’s never made sense to me, either. And when asked, my mind goes a total blank. Ditto with “What authors have influenced you?”
Every single one I’ve ever read?