When Authors Go Bad

[Adora]

Okay, so we all know authors who somehow, even though they may write vaguely okay stories, do something stupid and shit off a lot of people.

However, Anne Rice has recently taken the cake for me.

At her Amazon page for her new book, The Blood Canticle (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/037541200X/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/002-4738149-4003223?customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155), she posted an entry supposedly as a "reply" to everyone who posted a bad review. Though it has been deleted now, you can read it here over at one of my favourite places on the web, Fandom Wank (http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/515245.html#cutid1). Some of us sent her emails and letters and got hilarious responses back. Twas much fun, even though we usually have a policy of No Trolling. Oh, and we even had a crack at editing her hideous blocks of text.

She even got in the news. (http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1095804613613&call_pageid=968867495754&col=969483191630%3C/a)

Fans took her advice and sent her their books, as well as emails and letters telling her how much of a git she was. She responded without paragraph breaks or editing and drove many fans who considered themselves loyal away by telling them they were wrong just because they didn't like her book.

I've known of other writers who have made idiots of themselves like this, Anne McCaffery being one of the big ones that comes to mind, but McCaffery never had other authors telling her she's a fucking dickhead for doing so. Like I needed any more reasons to love and worship Neil Gaiman as my One True God (http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2004/09/de-gustibus-and-how-to-reply-to-bad.asp). I've seen similar shit crop up in Star Wars, with Lucas making a total nob out of himself for various reasons as well. It seems to be a recurring thing when creators of myth get too big for their lunchbox and start feeling they need to interact with their readers/viewers more than is healthy.

So, what do you think. Do you think authors/creators have a right to tell people off who don't like what they do, or do you think they should keep their fat mouths shut?

[Farren]

Some of the bad reviews made me chuckle :D

This book was a torture to read, its so bad that I grind my teeth during the whole thing. Any one have have Anne Rices home address so I can send her my dentist bill???No really I lost a filling.. she owes me 125 + 7.99


I've tried reading the novel from a different perspective as Miss Rice stated, but I got a bit lost as to which perspective was the 'right' perspective.

I read the book upside down, but it was still a lousy read, albeit a bit more difficult to read, but still dull. I tried reading right to left but that didn't make much sense. I tried angling the book diagonally, and then attempted to shift it out of focus and then back into focus as I'm one of those unfortunates who must wear glasses.
...
This was where I found the right perspective as we had apparently run out of toilet paper and I was forced to rely upon the pages of the novel itself. Granted, this does take quite a bit of crumbling up, but I've never felt so satisfied with an Anne Rice book as I did then.


Why isn't there a "no star" rating

I opened this one up at the bookstore and was offended by line 3

I've never actually read Rice, only watched "Interview" with Tom Cruise which was wonderful. I recall a friend who used to love Rice just stopped reading when she stopped using editors. He thought the change was instantaneous and noticable and the hubris that informed that decision often topples the best of writers. He's actually an acclaimed local playwright himself, with 40 plays behind him and I have always found his critiques spot on. So when I get round to reading Rice its gonna be everything before "Memnoch"

[livius drusus]

Rice's tirade is some of the worst writing I've ever seen. I suppose I should be happy she didn't find a way to jam a few dozen preternaturals in there, but damn, she fucking sucks ass. (It's an industry term.)

You are interrogating this text from the wrong perspective. Indeed, you aren't even reading it. You are projecting your own limitations on it. And you are giving a whole new meaning to the words "wide readership." And you have strained my Dickensean principles to the max. I'm justifiably proud of being read by intellectual giants and waitresses in trailer parks,in fact, I love it, but who in the world are you?

Literate. Who the fuck are you?

[viscousmemories]

Yeah that rant was pretty rich. In her defense, though, the Star article does mention that her husband of 41 years (after whom she apparently modeled LeStat) died during the writing of Blood Canticle. Kinda makes her insistance that LeStat was close and talking to her throughout the writing a little more meaningful.

That article in the Star has some other interesting stuff too:

The site's Canadian version, Amazon.ca, stirred controversy in February when it advertently revealed the real identities of the readers posting reviews, and it emerged that several prominent authors used pen names to post five-star reviews for themselves or their friends.

[wildernesse]

Well, all the people who didn't like the book aren't true Anne Rice fans. And they should never open their mouths.

At least that's what true Anne Rice fans think.

I'm loving the amazon reviews.

[JoeP]

Ooh, pet hate. :angry: I blame the publishers. The majority of successful novelists are heavily edited (for all aspects, grammar, spellling, plotlines, characters) in their first book or three ... because they're not successful yet, of course. Then they just drop the ball. "Don't need to waste editors' time on this idiot, the books will fly off the shelves." Then you get further books which are impossible to read unless you're a blind fan or a complete sucker.

I read a book by David Baldacci once - I will never touch another. It was full of repetitions of tired and irritating phrases, and other flaws my mind has blocked out. I'm prepared to believe his early books could be worth reading, but why bother?

If Anne Rice used her power as a successful author to refuse editing, then she's an arrogant idiot, but I've always felt it's the publishers' fault for being lazy.

The logical consequence of course is that most writers can't "write" as we'd like them too. The stuff we enjoy reading is a product of a whole bunch of people.

[SharonDee]

First book of the Vampire Chronicles that foretold my giving up on Rice as a worthy author: The Tale of the Body Thief. They've all been downhill from there.

I did manage to read (and enjoy) the first book about the Mayfair witches. Rice was never so entertaining to me as when she took us on long fictional jaunts through history and pre-history; The Mayfair Witches didn't disappoint. At least, it didn't until the end. It was a pretty crappy ending, really.

Still, I was too stubborn to give up completely. I read her Armand book because I loved that sexy little boy. Utter trash. I read her Marius book since I'd loved him from way back. Complete garbage. I read the Vampires-meet-Witches book because hey, it's Lestat out of his religious coma. Stomach-turning bilge; this wasn't the Brat Prince I knew and loved.

And now I have given up. I mean it this time. To quote one of the posters on the message board link: Bitch, please! :glare:

[lisarea]

I've never really gotten into Anne Rice, so I can't comment directly, but yeah, history tends not to look kindly (http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/cooper/cooper.html) on authors who are particularly arrogant and defensive (http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/history/amelit/chapter5.html).

Let's even assume you win the battle. You know what happens? Life, in general terms, goes on--everbody dies and new people are born. Lots of them. They're fucking everywhere. And, a hundred and sixty-odd years down the road, in a medium you could never have dreamt of, in a form easily cut and pasted, your legacy lives on:

The value of Mr. Cooper's character has been judicially determined. It is worth exactly four hundred dollars.

And there ain't shit you can do about it, is there, dead man?

[Adora]

I read her Armand book because I loved that sexy little boy. Utter trash.

Too true. TVA was the first Anne Rice book I ever read. I was in it for the pr0n. From the very beginning. And she does do pr0n extremely well. Exit to Eden and the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy are classic erotica. But everything else tends to drag on for too long.