Author bashing is nothing new

Mr Flibble · Oct 5, 2009

In the light of all the anti Brown and Meyer sentiment....There ain't nothing new under the sun, as this book shows.

American Norman Mailer, who died in 2007, did nothing to hide his contempt for Tom Wolfe's bulky novel A Man in Full.
He said: 'At certain points, reading the work can even be said to resemble the act of making love to a 300lb woman. Once she gets on top, it's all over. Fall in love, or be asphyxiated.'

And then there's George Bernard Shaw on the Bard: "With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott,whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare."

Even Byron asked for Keats to be flayed

Red-Green · Oct 5, 2009

The thing that highlights is that it's possible for two writers to hate each other and for you still like both of them. I love Shakespeare. I love Shaw. Who cares if Shaw hated Shakespeare?

Mr Flibble · Oct 5, 2009

What it highlights for me is that authors have always considered other authors crap - even when general opinion loves them both and / or they are both great writers

Rolling Thunder · Oct 5, 2009

As long as discussions are based on the pros/cons merits/disadvantages of a given writer's work, we let them stand. But we'll still lock them when they begin to swirl down the drain.

scarletpeaches · Oct 5, 2009

There's a difference between author bashing and writing bashing.

Most of what I see here is dissing the work, not the person behind it and if you give good reasons for your dislike, that's perfectly okay with me. Reasoned argument is never mindless 'bashing'.

blacbird · Oct 5, 2009

I think this tendency goes back at least to Roman satirist Juvenal, and quite possibly to Aristophanes.

And to be able to bash 'em, they gotta be published first.

caw

Deleted member 42 · Oct 5, 2009

IdiotsRUs said:
Even Byron asked for Keats to be flayed

Yes, but that says more about Byron's particular kinks than it does about Keats' writing . . .

ishtar'sgate · Oct 5, 2009

P.D. James spoke pretty disparagingly about Agatha Christie but old Aggie sure sold a lot of books!

scarletpeaches · Oct 5, 2009

In fact she's the bestselling fiction writer ever.

lucidzfl · Oct 5, 2009

blacbird said:
I think this tendency goes back at least to Roman satirist Juvenal, and quite possibly to Aristophanes.

And to be able to bash 'em, they gotta be published first.

caw

Its like the ancient saying of the seafaring Aegeans,

"That fuckin' bitch cain't write SHIT!"

Mr Flibble · Oct 5, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Most of what I see here is dissing the work, not the person behind it and if you give good reasons for your dislike, that's perfectly okay with me. Reasoned argument is never mindless 'bashing'.

Absolutely - there's no accounting for taste. Subjective and all that.

Although I think that as writers, the people quoted were at least more literary about their dislike. ( and mostly they too were dissing the work, not the writer. Still, it's gotta sting a bit...)

panda · Oct 5, 2009

I think that's the worst when other published authors go after other authors, its like a break in the author code lol. Like Stephen King bashes Twilight and Meyer for not being a good writer. It's like how rude. And also, I would be laughing all the way to the bank if I were a published, super rich author. I could care less about nasty comments then, cause it's sort of like calling Michael Phelps a slow swimmer lol.

benbradley · Oct 5, 2009

Rolling Thunder said:
As long as discussions are based on the pros/cons merits/disadvantages of a given writer's work, we let them stand. But we'll still lock them when they begin to swirl down the drain.

So I suppose some of those famous writers wouldn't last long on AW...

JoNightshade · Oct 5, 2009

Medievalist said:
Yes, but that says more about Byron's particular kinks than it does about Keats' writing . . .

Byron was an ass*.

*I apologize in advance if my author bashing gets this thread locked.

scarletpeaches · Oct 5, 2009

Byron was a sister-fucking deviant.

God, I love him.

Author bashing is nothing new

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Red-Green

KoalaKoalaKoala!

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

Rolling Thunder

scarletpeaches

blacbird

Deleted member 42

ishtar'sgate

living in the past

scarletpeaches

lucidzfl

Back from the dead

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

panda

its harders sto type withh paaws

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

scarletpeaches