Fighting the good fight.

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since we've had a dedicated book flog, but that's because trying to read any of the latest incarnations of the LKH disaster known as the Anita Blake Series while sober is like asking someone to read while they're suffering an aneurysm. However, I do applaud and will always applaud the brave souls that take up the sacred duty of reading it, and reporting back to us the sordid little details.

However, we are not alone, and while LKH is abhorrent so is Stephanie Meyer. I just never realized how awful until a brave soul named Dana sat down and disemboweled the book, literally ripped the pages out scanned them in and then tore them apart in the grammatical way.

Reasoning With Vampires

I figure it's always good to give some recognition to our fellow readers in pain. ;)

All I know is in that previous post Mr. Docx was aghast at people reading Stieg Larsson novels on the train, but unlike LKH and Stephanie Meyer Mr. Larsson has plot, character development, and oh yeah the English translation doesn't reek of sentence and grammar abominations. Sure, his books may not be Grade A status, but the man did die before his novels were even discovered which doesn't exactly allow time to go back over your publisher's editing notes.

I was more surprised that Docx had issue with people like Dan Brown and Stieg Larsson and not even a whisper about the most popular travesty of our time. Even LKH has a pretty fierce crowd of troos. I think Docx is worried about the entirely wrong crowd. Sure, LKH and the rest fall under genre writing which is what he attacks, but we discussed how both genre and literary fiction have plenty of good merits and authors and that they have their share of bad. I think genre fiction just gets the brunt of criticism because it's often out there in the limelight; however, it's not fair to criticize the whole. Fiction is fiction, I don't think the circumstances matter. Really good, good, okay, bad, worst of the worst Fiction should be in the same boat, and of course we all have personal tastes to take into consideration. I think The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is good for example, but I thought it was culturally fascinating as well as having an intriguing kind of out of the ordinary circumstances and plot-line. I took a class all about suspense in Fiction so that furthered my interests. Criticism, it's kind of a fat book, and could probably be trimmed some; however, like I mentioned he's kind of past the point of getting to do his own editing. Also, I'll be interested to see how Hollywood changes the end as that might have been the hardest part to swallow, but as I'd already been invested in the whole book it kind of worked I'd already expected something of the sort anyway.

So anyway, all of that said. I'm curious, especially with the advent in popularity of devices like the Kindle, Nook, and iPad do you think maybe there is going to be a light at the end of this tunnel of train wrecks?

I just wonder if we're ever going to escape from the likes of LKH and Stephanie Meyer and the rest of them out there. I'm not worried about genre fiction. I am worried about the worst of the worst of all fiction.

Comments

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

Well, the idea is that with better availability to good or at least better novels (because it's especially the cool thing to get an iPad right now) whether technology instead of taking us away from reading might bring us closer again?

I mean you have all these educators crying that kids don't read anymore, and then apparently this state leads to popularity of Twilight because they apparently don't know any better (that's kind of an impression I've gotten, not saying it's accurate just a thought); however, now instead of it being books say vs. kids being on Facebook all the time you can read a book and get Facebook updates while you read.

I mean instead of the circles of tweens and teens passing around their copies of Twilight or "insert latest ridiculous LKH title here" they have Kindle or an iPad with vast numbers of options so maybe there will be this move away from the ridiculous popularity of books like Twilight and to a lesser extent fewer 'troos' of LKH's crowd.

It's maybe not the best put together thesis, but there is the summation of my curiosity. I realize it's highly optimistic so thus probably not realistic; however, fun to think about?

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

Lol, yeah, I agree with your interpretation. Damn the addictive mindless entertainment that is DoodleJump and Angry Birds... >.>; well... it was a fun idea anyway, lol.

I would like to have one, maybe I will justify it once I go on to grad school. I'd rather spend money on that and save money on textbooks, presuming they make them more widely available. Oh money, lol.

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

My friends really liked it. I figured I'd better stick with Doodlejump, because there is only so much mindless entertainment I should allow myself to get carried away with, and I already had Sims installed on my computer for a while, lol. This however looks kind of right up my alley.

Thanks ^_^

[tonights.livejournal.com]

My Kindle is the best piece of technology I've ever spent money on, and I'm able to read for pleasure a lot more than I used to since I've gotten it.

[tonights.livejournal.com]

It's an amazing piece of technology for me because I like that the Kindle is as close to an actual book as possible - I don't want my book to take pictures or make phone calls. I want it to be... you know... a book. If I want the other stuff I'll use my laptop.

[tonights.livejournal.com]

Well, actually, you can make phone calls for free in Gchat (it's pretty cool).

But that aside, I can't read a book in the dark either. I like having a little clip-on light on my Kindle, just as I would on a book. From conversations I've had from other Kindle owners, the similarities to a book and the general lack of bells and whistles are actually positive aspects to the device, not drawbacks. I understand that it doesn't work for you, but it works for some folks.

And yes, the device does totally have flaws - I absolutely agree with you, the keyboard is complete shit and I almost never use it - I'm just providing the counterpoint here that what you see as unacceptable failures actually create a very desirable device for people who only want their e-reader to function like a book and not like a laptop, camera, tablet, etc. It has a place, just like regular cellphones still have a place even though smartphones exist. Just because bells and whistles are technologically possible doesn't mean everyone always needs or wants them.

[killiara.livejournal.com]

As someone who is absolutely in love with her nook... Erm... I think the lower publishing costs are going to encourage writers to be less concise, not more, especially with the financial success of Robert Jordan. I am terrified.

Also... this is the best damn ripping apart of Twilight I've ever seen.

http://stoney321.livejournal.com/317176.html#cutid1

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

Well I meant with the availability of what's already published, I didn't think about new material... that could be terrifying.

[libwitch.livejournal.com]

I tried to read Twilight (what can I say? I was working at a bookstore at the time, and we were getting ready for the Breaking Dawn release party. I was trying to be good). I managed to make it through the first book with the help of some booze and a lot of aspirin. It wasn't only the painful attempts at a plot, or the pathetic dialogue, but it was also the creepy stalker that she was trying to pass off as a romantic ideal. *shudder*

it turned me off the whole series so bad I couldn't even lie when customers gushed about the series - OH MY GOD - DONT YOU LOVE IT?! I would just look at them and say, smileless, "No." And they would just...blink.

No, why would ebook reading devices help? It will, in the end, just make it easier for people to self publish & distribute cheaply - and easier for people to hide what utter trash they are reading.

[estllechauvelin.livejournal.com]

I've never really agreed with the concept of the literature vs. genre fiction dichotomy, partly because whenever something which has all of the elements of a genre attains sufficient literary standing, people will deny that it's genre fiction in order to maintain the "there's no good prose in genre fiction" concept. I think my favorite passage of fiction ever, strictly considering the prose itself, may be the first few lines of Fahrenheit 451:

"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed. With the brass nozzle in his fists, with this great python spitting its venomous kerosene upon the world, the blood pounded in his head, and his hands were the hands of some amazing conductor playing all the symphonies of blazing and burning to bring down the tatters and charcoal ruins of history."

And I won't even try to come up with a representative sample of Neil Gaiman. The problem isn't genre fiction vs. general fiction, and the latter always being more literary. It's good writing vs. bad writing. Nor do I think that prose is the only standard by which to judge good writing. There's also plot, character development, and setting, and a book can not only get along but even be thought provoking while only having decent prose if it's strong enough on two or more of the others.

I also think that a first person narration-heavy genre like Urban Fantasy is going to lean in a different direction, prose-wise. When it comes down to it, the style of a book with a first person narrator should be based on how that character would talk and think, and not on being as polished as possible. Kelley Armstrong doesn't produce prose that makes me want to crawl inside of it the way Neil Gaiman does, but she does the best job of distinguishing between her narrator's voices out of any author I've seen. That's talent, too.

[mystickiwi.livejournal.com]

Now, I love my nook (I'm a bibliophile, but I also travel A LOT, so having a nook means I'm not worrying about which books to cram in my carryon) However I think it will actually do the opposite, in terms of people who would once be embarrassed to be seen reading LKH (or twilight) can now read them on their nook and no one will be the wiser.

[booksketeer.livejournal.com]

I like the fact that my kindle runs 8 hours before dying. My laptop runs for two.

Also, my hubby's iPad seems to be a little too unwieldy for me. The kindle fits better in my hand. I like it because it's just a book- and sometimes I use the internet for online stories.

But for the money, the iPad is the better deal.