I get this all the time.
SOMEONE
You love the WWE? You write books for kids about
the WWE? What's next? A junior biography
of Torquemada?
ME
(quoting Suzanne Vega's "The Queen and the Soldier")
"You know you won't understand, and you may as well not try."
Okay. That's an exaggeration. But except for the worldwide WWE Universe, and the public and school librarians who know and love that WWE has been -- and continues to be! -- one of the really great corporate supporters of kids' reading, admitting love for WWE is like admitting love for "All My Children"... except that John Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, and Kelly Kelly all have bigger and better muscles than Susan Lucci. (In the case of Kelly Kelly, she also has better, er, hair. But I digress.).
WWE rocks. It rocks because it's incredibly entertaining episodic televsision. We watch TV to be entertained. If you disagree, think of a single hour of episodic television that changed your life like maybe a book or a film or a Bible passage changed your life. I've written for iconic shows like "The Young and the Restless" and "Smallville." Not one single episode changed anyone's life as much even as "Charlotte's Web."
WWE rocks because of the struggle between good and evil; the clash of titans; the athleticism, raw power and pure grace; the heroes and the villains and how they change...and because conflicts are always settled in the ring. Always. ALWAYS. Maybe we grownups can take a nod from that.
WWE rocks because it knows pure entertainment makes the world more fun. WWE rocks because it supports boys and girls reading. Not just in school, either. For fun, too. It puts its money where its mouth is with the WWE Wrestlemania Reading Challenge, co-sponsored with the American Library Association. Boys, especially, could stand to read more. WWE helps.
WWE rocks because it's a safe place where men can be men.
SOMEONE
But it's so fixed! It's so fake! It's scripted!
SFW. So was ROCKY. So is every story every told, and every piece of stage combat every fought. It doesn't matter, so long as the story is riveting and if your time spent with the story is enjoyable. Which is why when Penguin books heard I loved WWE and loved my pitch for write SuperFan!, I tried to write a book as much fun to read as WWE is for boys and girls to watch. Did I? You decide.
Gotta go. Time for Monday Night "RAW." Then, I'll listen to "Solitude Standing."
Oxymornic? Not hardly.
