An English author set fire to her own books because she didn’t like their “cosy little domestic blurbs”.
Writing on Twitter, Jeanette Winterson said she “absolutely hated” the blurbs on the new covers of her republished books so, naturally, she set them on fire:
Absolutely hated the cosy little domestic blurbs on my new covers. Turned me into wimmins fiction of the worst kind! Nothing playful or strange or the ahead of time stuff that’s in there. So I set them on fire pic.twitter.com/w1udGhu52s
— JEANETTE WINTERSON (@Wintersonworld) June 4, 2021
Winterson is best known for her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, which she wrote in 1985 at 23 years old. Since them she has been awarded an OBE for services to literature and has published more than a dozen books including The Passion, a novel set in Napoleonic Europe, Written on the Body, Art and Lies, and The Powerbook, all of which made it to the bonfire.
Why? Well speaking to The Guardian, Winterson said her books had done something “different” at the time they were published and the blurbs had made them sound “tame and obvious”.
She added:
“The publishers are fixing the problem but these are not copies I want to keep. I gave most of them away to charity but needed a symbolic burning to raise my spirits. I am the writer I am. But I wouldn’t buy one of my books with those suburban blurbs.
“I am quick tempered as people know. But I come back down pretty quick too and see the funny side. I was incandescent at the time.”
But reacting to her quick temper, people were not pleased to see the author “wasting” her books:
Why not donate them to charity? Rich authors wasting paper is spoilt, not radical. Asylum Seeker drop ins, schools, charities, refuges cry out for free books. Disrespectful to women authors who spent time blurbing too. Not sure how it got to this point with publishers though
— BooksSmith (@Arthurs22150365) June 4, 2021
Shame you couldn't overprint or wrap them. Could have been an interesting design challenge and more environmentally friendly.
— Mark Howe (@howiehowe) June 4, 2021
This seems extreme and hyper wasteful? Disrespectful to the resources that it took to make them, as well as couldn't you just donate them somewhere, never having to look at them again?
— Annie (@Big_Spiders) June 4, 2021
Others saw it as a “power move” and praised the author:
Glorious! And fantastic new cover art too. https://t.co/MayXg8Q55B
— Roo Reynolds (@rooreynolds) June 4, 2021
Oh. I just read one. Wow. Kudos to you. Note to publishers: don't be so clueless.
— WritingBeyondTheRoom (@womenwoolfrooms) June 4, 2021
Total power move to burn your own! I love this and feel inspired by this badassery.
— Kate Reilly (@katerei11y) June 4, 2021
To anyone criticizing this as environmentally wasteful, may I kindly suggest you get off it? This is an artist’s statement on her work. There are large corporate polluters to take down. Thx.
Goodness. We certainly won’t be getting on Winterson’s bad side.
