[bookshare-discuss] Re: Colleen McCullough: JKR is a "lousy writer"
- From: "Duane A. Iverson" <diverson@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2004 19:29:49 -0000
Hi Diane:
That "other thought" was apparently silent, or so deep my computer couldn't
think it.
But I will weigh in here with what I have affectionately called "The
Heinlein effect" I am tempted to call it the Anderson Effect, but Mr.
Heinlein has had the misfortune to have the effect illustrated in all its
glory with the two publications of Stranger in a Strange land.
Poul Anderson is, in my considered estimation, the gratest Science Fiction
writer of his generation. ;He wrote better about more things in more styles
then anyone else. Read, from this sight, The Night Face, then read one of
the books I uploaded Fantasy, then find, if you can, A Midsummer tempest.
and last read the stories The Longest Voyage and The Queen of Air And
Darkness and then there's Inside Strait, and ETC ETC.
Eventually, though, He was Poul Anderson Grand Master an no one would tell
him that the stories didn't "sing".
You see the same in Heinlein's last few works. The were over long and
Tedious, but RAH could sell anything he could write and the publishers new
this. Also Heinlein Threw enough weight that if one publisher displeased
him, he could go somewhere else.
Thus Stranger in a Strange land.
I had read the book several times beginning in the 70-s when I first became
a discerning reader.
Now! the publisher trumpeted, "Stranger in a Strange land will be published
As Heinlein originally wrote it!"
It turns out that the novel as published originally had been redacted by
sixty thousand words by the editors.
The Sixty thousand words after they were put back made the story longer, but
not better.
J.K.R. I think, had arrived at this plateau by the time Goblet of Fire was
published. No editor in his right mind was going to say, "J. K. Honey, this
book needs to be cut by forty-thousand words and Here, Here, and Here needs
a rewrite, and and you didn't properly develop the motivations of X. . ."
and so forth.
First, as an editor you know that what ever she writes is going to sell 30
million copies. And second if you make her mad and she leaves the firm,
your bosses are going to have you staked out for the red ants.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Diane Chalkier" <dkelker1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 11:03 PM
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: Colleen McCullough: JKR is a "lousy writer"
> And yet another thought:
>
>
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Other related posts:
