Pop Blog Tour: The on-off love affair between reality TV and the novel.

Today we have the lovely Catherine Bruton, who has stopped by as part of the blog tour for the release of her new book, POP, to talk about reality TV and the novel...
---

The on-off love affair between reality TV and the novel

I’ve decided that my new novel ‘Pop!’ is in fact the secret love child of George Orwell and Jessie J! Or maybe Suzanne Collins and Simon Cowell...crikey! what a thought!

Because ‘Pop! is perhaps only the latest chapter in the on-off, will-they-won’t-they love saga between reality TV and literature that’s been going on for decades.

After all, it was a character from Orwell’s dystopian ‘1984’ that spawned ‘Big Brother’ – the ‘big brother of all reality TV concepts’ – and now ‘Surveillance-TV’ is inspiring a new generation of novelists (myself included). Meanwhile, the boundaries are getting blurred: with reality TV stars turning novelist (and vice versa) and the editors of Reality TV melding fiction with reality in their heavily scripted ‘docu-soaps’.

For today’s young people the twin cults of celebrity and surveillance are a ubiquitous feature of the world they are growing up in. So perhaps it’s not surprising to find reality TV becoming an increasingly prevalent feature in children’s books. From dystopian fiction to satire, tweenie novels to spin-off chick-lit, the ‘Reality TV Novel’ is perhaps the ultimate 21st century hybrid!

Probably the best example is ‘The Hunger Games’ – which presents a dystopian future vision of a reality TV contest taken to a horrifying new level. And what makes it so brilliant (apart from the love triangle and the gruesome killing and unputdownable story line, that is!) is that the conventions it draws on are all so recognisable. The chat show style host and diary room-esque moments: it’s all just a small distortion away from Saturday night staple TV fare.

But it’s not only dystopian fiction that has been influenced by reality TV. The TV Talent contest has been a feature of some of the most interesting contemporary fiction to emerge over the last few years. Annabel Pitcher’s ‘My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece’ melds terrorism with televised talent contests; Joanna Nadin’s ‘The Money, Stan, Big Lauren and Me’ is like ‘The Treasure Seekers’ for the ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’ generation; and my own latest novel ‘Pop!’ is a mash-up of ‘Billy Elliot’, ‘Shameless’ and ‘The X Factor’.

What’s interesting about all these novels is that they confront complex contemporary issues - recession, strikes, terrorism - and in each the child protagonists see reality TV as a viable solution to their problems. And no wonder. Growing up under the shadow of recession, no wonder today’s young people are drawn to the rag-to-riches tales scripted by the editors of Saturday night TV. In bleak times, Talent TV seems offers the fairy-tale endings we crave – with Simon Cowell as the ultimate Fairy God-mother (or perhaps David Walliams will fight him for that particular tiara)!

My own forthcoming novel ‘Pop!’ sees a group of kids pursuing the Talent TV dream in the recession hit North West. In a community divided by strikes, winning ‘Pop to the Top!’ seems to offer these kids a chance to escape from broken homes, bankruptcy and bailiffs.

And Talent TV loves nothing more than a tragic ‘back story’, as my main character Elfie observes: ‘It might be a battle with cancer or drugs, or a dead dad/dog/goldfish who told you to ‘follow that dream’ or a crippling stutter or stage fright or just chronic ugliness ... it doesn’t matter: if you want to win you need a healthy dose of misery in your back catalogue.’

And the folks in Talent TV-land are the ultimate story-tellers: from the heart-rending back stories; to the will- they won’t they moments; the rollercoaster rides; the butterfly-from-the-cocoon makeovers; the nail-biting cliff-hangers; the tear-jerking goodbyes and the edge-of-your-seat grand finales. The bods in the editing suites at ‘The X Factor’ and ‘BGT’ are some of the best story-tellers around today!

No wonder that they are starting to jump ship, going from from production houses to publishing deals! ‘Strictly Shimmer’ (described as ‘A 100% official Strictly Come Dancing novel, featuring the dancers, stars and judges you love!’) is written by Amanda Roberts, a production runner on the set of Strictly! And the ‘L.A. Candy’ series – a story of some girls being plucked from obscurity for a reality TV version of ‘Sex and the City’ - was actually written by Lauren Conrad, one of the stars of the hit US reality TV show ‘The Hills’.

And when it starts working the other way – with children’s writer David Walliams appearing on the judging panel of a Talent TV show (no doubt he’ll be writing a novel about it next!) – it all just gets too much to get your brain around!

Meanwhile, the new generation of Reality TV shows are also starting to play with their own fictionality. ‘Docu-soaps’ like ‘Desperate Scousewives’ ‘The Only Way is Essex’ and – my own particular fave – ‘Made in Chelsea’ warn us that, whilst, ‘these people are real, some scenes may have been staged for your viewing entertainment’. And when the producer turns ‘actor’ in his own show (a la Hugo from ‘MIC’) half the fascination of watching comes from trying to work out who’s playing who? Are the producers like puppet masters pulling the strings or are the ‘actors’ (characters? contestants?) now writing their own scripts, manipulating the conventions of the genre to their own ends?



So, the shelves are stacked with ‘Reality TV Fiction’ but, if you ask me, the best of the genre sets out to explore what our national obsession with reality TV tells us about contemporary society. But what next: a TV Talent show for novelists? A televised version of a Talent TV novel? Who knows, but reality TV and fiction have got serious romantic history so I look forward to reading the next chapter in their tempestuous love affair!
---
Thanks Catherine!

The next stop on the tour is tomorrow over with Book Angel Booktopia and you can check out the whole schedule to the right on my sidebar.

You can find Catherine at her Website and on Twitter

We Can Be Heroes Blog Tour: Guest Post

To kick of the We Can Be Heroes Uk Blog Tour I have a guest post from the lovely Catherine Bruton.  So without further ado I shall hand you over...

My first blog tour

There are many important firsts in a girl’s life: first visit from the tooth-fairy (who bought 10p in my day); first kiss (Tim 1, 1989, Warrington Roller Disco – loveliest kiss ever! Tim 2 and his tumble dryer tongue action were a definite let down after that); first car (white Nissan Micra called Noggin); first car crash (Noggin the Nissan – the day after I got her); first heartbreak (Cape Town 1996 – I actually vomited with sadness, giving whole new meaning to the phrase love sick); first Krispy Creme doughnut (yesterday, and seriously do they put that crack drug stuff in them to get you addicted cos I just can’t stop thinking about it?) ... Oh, I’ve lost my train of thought. . . Krispy Cremes, vomiting in the Cape, snogging at the roller rink... Yes, that was it – important firsts.

Anyway, this is my first blog tour. In fact, it’s my first ever blog. Which is exciting - and terrifying at the same time. I’m hoping it’s going to be more like the snog and the Krispy Crème and less like sick-bag, car crash experience. But basically, I’m a blog virgin so you may have to bear with me if I commit terrible blog faux pas or get myself tied up in blog-knots, or whatever. But here goes. . .

So I have this book coming out called ‘We Can be Heroes’ - in three days time, in fact - which is incredibly exciting. In fact, I reckon I need one of those Glee t-shirts. You know that ones that say stuff like ‘Can’t sing’ and ‘Likes boys’ and ‘I’m with stoopid’? Well, I want to get one that says, ‘I wrote a book’, just so everyone knows. Like everyone – the postman, the grumpy blinky lady from the post-office, the mean girls I used to go to school with, George Clooney, Taylor Lautner, Wills and Kate, Harry Potter, Michael Jackson (yes, I know he’s supposed to be dead but I reckon he’s in hiding somewhere with Elvis and the Queen Mum doing karaoke versions of ‘The Man in the Mirror’ and ‘Dirty Diana’ – the QM’s fave!) Basically, everyone!

Anyway, I’m getting off the topic and I think at this point I’m supposed to tell you a bit about my book and a bit about the blog tour and stuff. Right? So here goes. My novel is called ‘We Can be Heroes’. It was inspired by an article I wrote for The Times in 2008 about children who had lost a parent in 9/11 attacks and it tells the story of 12 year old Ben, whose father died on September 11th. He meets 10 year old Priti, a Muslim girl who is convinced her brother is a suicide bomber. The pair, along with Ben's troubled cousin Jed, decide to turn detective to try and foil the bomb plot with hilarious - and explosive - consequences.

We Can be Heroes has been described as 'an outstanding debut', ‘ an important book’, ‘ a remarkable book’, ‘an exceptional debut’, 'one to watch' and compared to ‘The Curious Incident’ by some lovely reviewers (thank you, reviewers, I love you!). In fact, I think I might get all of that on a T-shirt too. Or perhaps just the nice review that said, ‘Bruton is Brilliant’ – which is my new life mantra - and anti-dote to Krispy Creme cravings.

So, I’m totally chuffed to have been asked to do this blog tour, talking about how I came to write the book, the challenges of writing about events like 9/11, my favourite books, my childhood escapades (zombie grannies, piercing ears with fish fingers, locking teachers in cupboards, roller rink adventures etc) and loads of other stuff too. I’ll be blogging on the day my book actually hits the shelves – which might just be a series of squiggles and eeeks! – oh, and if you want to find out a bit more about me I’ll be doing the usual interview stuff too.

So if you want to join me on my magical mystery blog tour over the next few days, remember, you have been warned: I’m a learner blogger with a record of writing off perfectly innocent Nissan Micras and a Krispy Creme habit to feed . So it could be a bit of an emotional rollercoaster but I promise to give 110% and put my heart and soul into it (and any more Talent TV clichés I can trot out). Right, that’s the safety announcement over. Now here we go - Tooth fairy, Tim 1 , achey breaky heart - eat your heart out, cos I just done written my first ever blog. How cool is that? Over and out!
----
Thanks Catherine!  How much do I now fancy a Krispy Creme lol!

You can find Catherine at her Website and on Twitter

The next stop on the tour is tomorrow at Wondrous Reads and you can check out the whole schedule to the right on my sidebar.