The stuff about published authors · 10:38pm Dec 19th, 2013
Okay, now, for the most part, I have been out of the actual literature zone for a long time. I've kind of been into ponyfiction so long that I've forgotten what real literature is like.
Long story short, I finished with finals early in class today, so I went and I picked up a random book off the shelf. That book was "Brian's Hunt", by Gary Paulson. I'd read hatchet before when I was about 14 and I figured it would be a good read. And sure, the book wasn't bad, but when it came to cosmetics, it was ugly, unpolished, and telly as all shit. It was like the fanfiction on this site that I usually make fun of. It was mediocre, cliche, and telly. And he probably published it through Schoolastic and made a million dollars off of that 120 page, font-size 18 novel.
Same thing with Twilight. I never will read the books, but one day I picked one up out of curiosity and found myself reading the part where Bella crashes on the motorcycle, and it was by far the trashiest written action scene I have ever seen. It was so broad that the author might as well have been reading off her shopping list. Not only could I hardly tell what was going on, but it was boring to read. Every other sentence started with either he or she and every bit of dialogue ended with a he/she said. It was bogus.
This is the stuff I look at on fimfiction and furrow my brows because I think it's mediocre. Am I just way too strict, or is popular literature just plain trash? I mean, sure there's the good authors out there by the thousands, but there's also a lot of bad ones.
I am honestly somewhat baffled.
I don't think you're being too strict, statistically, there has to be more bad/mediocre writers for good ones to exist.
You're not too strict, everyone else is too lenient.
I think you just had a bad run in with those two. Yes Im sure there are horrid books but the last two i've read (X-files book and a Clive Cussler novel) were outstanding
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Hurray! I'm not a jerkhole elitist!
Being totally honest, literature is pretty much like any other kind of media, you are bound to find the best and the worst published and more often than not mediocrity winning over the good stuff. Conections and influences gives you a real chance to get published while working hard usually doesnt...
All a matter of view.
And don't forget, your views change over time.
But Twilight will always be trash. ALWAYS.
~Skeeter The Lurker
I'm more familiar with Dutch literature than English, since the former is my native language, but I can tell you that what I usually read in Dutch books is much worse than what I usually read on this site. You're not alone in your observations. Then again, I've also seen some literature that is much better than your average story here, so I might just be reading the wrong books.
1625416 exactly.
There have been a surprisingly high number of books that I've read that I couldn't get farther than a chapter or two because of things along those lines. It really is sad that, as said above, some of the fan made things can be exponentially better and get little to no exposure compared to other... things..
I've noticed this too. I just started re-reading one of my favorite Koontz novels and already spotted several mistakes... Not just differences in how I would write it, but mistakes.
I know how you feel, believe me. That's why I tend to not buy books but rent them from the library.
) are cotton-candy reads; fun while reading them, but it's hard to recall what you just read.
"Anya's Ghost", written and drawn by Vera Brosgol is an excellent ghost story, yet most of the comic book collections (oops, I mean graphic novels
That's why it bums me out that Terry Pratchett is getting handicapped by his Alzheimer's disease.
As for the Fimfiction being bad, well...I'm not going to knock the place that gave my work a home, but I will say that you have to dig to find the good stuff. (And there is quite a bit of it.)
I try to not think about Twilight's success. It makes me grumpy.
Honestly? The only author for real fiction that surpasses the best fics I've seen on this site is Tom Clancy... the sadly now-late Tom Clancy
Everything else, no exceptions, is at best comparable.
It's easier to acknowledge individual books that are superior than entire authors. But George Orwell, Eoin Colfer, Douglas Adams, Tom Clancy, and J.K. Rowling still come to mind.
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I love you because this.
1626646 Great to see another fan of his work! I just finished "...And Another Thing", I swear it was Adams back from the grave writing it. And Artemis Fowl was epic back in the day.