Re: Authors whose style changes hugely

On 2008-10-17 11:48:19 -0700, djheydt@xxxxxxxxxxx (Dorothy J Heydt) said:

In article <2008101709375016807-kurt@busiekcomics>,
Kurt Busiek <kurt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Most of what I've heard and read about Card's political beliefs --
which seems to be what the fuss is about, when people talk about him --
does not seem to be in the novels.

Some people refuse to read Card on account of his political
beliefs, which (you are correct) by and large don't appear in his
work.

Others, myself among them, refuse to read Card on account of what
IS in his work, that is, a strong desire to manipulate his
readers' feelings by giving his bad guys UNDULY evil habits.
Usually, child abuse. He has admitted this in some of his
treatises on the art of writing, which otherwise aren't that bad.
The treatises, not the fiction.

I found his CHARACTER & VIEWPOINT very helpful.

It may be that I don't react to overly eeee-vul antagonists as much as some, because I'm used to Doctor Doom and the Joker. And I may just have been lucky enough not to encounter the books where child abuse plays too large a role -- I didn't enjoy LOST BOYS, though.

But all this reminds me of a time that Bill Mantlo was writing the ROM comic book for Marvel, and the villains were the flatly-evil Dire Wraiths. Bill had a problem writing outright villains, and kept trying to humanize the Wraiths, suggesting the introduction of conflicted Wraiths -- which really didn't work, since they were gelatinous piles of indistinguishable flup with Alien-like mouth-stingers.

The assistant editor on the book, Jo Duffy, would keep reminding Bill, during plot conferences, "They're Dire Wraiths! They enjoy strangling baby ducks!"

And the editor, Al Milgrom, would occasionally interject, "Squcccckkkk! There goes another one!"

No baby animals were ever actually tortured in the pages of ROM, but it did keep Bill on track with the characterization.

And presto, overly evil bad guys and baby (animal) abuse!

kdb

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: local happenings here in Georgia.....courtesy of the republican state leg
    ... Bryan S. Slick wrote: ... street and beaten by an angry mob for writing.. ... his electric bill, gas bill, phone bill, and other necessary utilities ...
    (rec.sport.football.college)
  • Re: Victim of Identity Theft at the Age of Three Weeks
    ... And now at the ripe old age of five months, little baby Andrew is ... That will make one hell of a page in his baby book. ... according to bill collectors, just three weeks after he was born he ... "As a parent you feel violated when your child ... ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • Victim of Identity Theft at the Age of Three Weeks
    ... And now at the ripe old age of five months, little baby Andrew is ... That will make one hell of a page in his baby book. ... according to bill collectors, just three weeks after he was born he ... "As a parent you feel violated when your child ... ...
    (alt.true-crime)
  • RE: Querying a yet to be created table?
    ... Tell me the # I'm thinking of writing down before I write it down? ... Either make a temp table or use a query to hold your billing ... > where the user can choose which customer to bill, and I use a SELECT INTO ... > months from now preferably with a command button and an entered text. ...
    (microsoft.public.access.queries)
  • Re: My Wifes episode of HawthoRNe airs tonight
    ... While most of the staff, like any show, come from a pure writing ... which Bill won the screenwriting oscar. ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
Loading