Ok, so, going easy on this one, both because of the subject matter and because there's actually not as much laughable here as there usually is (which I'm glad for cuz I'd be terribly conflicted if there was)
Firstly, I do think it's great that a teacher inspired her to write, that she remembers her to this day, and is posting about the difference she made. I'm sure it means a lot to Miss Sheline's family that a former student of hers has a success story to attribute to her encouragement and guidance as a teacher, and that's great. And as much as I may hate LKH's writing, as much as I may wish she never did it so that *I* could have all her ideas instead and do Cool Things with them, it is good that a teacher encouraged her towards her goals and dreams, and that she not only reached those goals and dreams (becoming a professional writer) but can even make a living from them. Regardless of the actual content of her writing and what I may think of it, that's quite an accomplishment on both their parts.
Now for the snark.
I would get a lot of judgement on the fact that I wrote genre fiction in college Ahahaha, I knew she'd bring this up.
I was this shy kid from the middle of Indiana farm country that had decided she would be a horror writer as her profession. Can you imagine how badly that could have gone if I’d gotten the wrong teacher at the very beginning?
Would it really be that big a deal in Indiana farm country that someone wanted to write horror? Like I get this was a few decades ago and a rural area, but what would be the worst that could happen that couldn't happen anywhere else? Normally I'd not doubt someone to know the cultural climate of where they grew up and I've never been, but given LKH's persecution complex and drama queen tendencies, I feel like the most she would have gotten was being regarded as kinda weird and maybe some religious hostility from the more churchy sorts, whereas this comes off to me like she wants us to think she could have been exorcized and institutionalized.
I discovered Robert E. Howard’s short story collection, Pigeons from Hell, which solidified what kind of writer I wanted to be and I’ve never wavered from that decision. It led me to find other horror authors to read including Stephen King and Anne Rice, which would both influence my own writing, especially Salem’s Lot and Interview with the Vampire. Then why are your books the way they are? I don't see ANY of these influences in LKH's work, aside from Rice in the most shallow and superficial of ways, with none of what actually made Interview truly compelling. Even Rice's vampires still had BITE under the pretty and the ponce, and pathos, and personality. LKH's don't. And they're certainly not scary like King's stuff. To be honest, the stuff she wrote as a kid actually sounds scarier than what she did now, but then again, we're just hearing about the concept; in execution, maybe they're as fail as AB (but with the excuse of having been the early work of a middle schooler)
Also, is it just me, or does she think she's the only 14 year old to ever write DARK AND EDGY stuff? Like that's not actually so unusual and weird at all, creative kids can often be perversely morbid because it seems to adult and taboo and they're going through the crappiness that is adolescence, I bet Miss Sheline actually saw a lot more of this stuff that LKH seems to think.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2015-01-16 02:43 pm (UTC)Firstly, I do think it's great that a teacher inspired her to write, that she remembers her to this day, and is posting about the difference she made. I'm sure it means a lot to Miss Sheline's family that a former student of hers has a success story to attribute to her encouragement and guidance as a teacher, and that's great. And as much as I may hate LKH's writing, as much as I may wish she never did it so that *I* could have all her ideas instead and do Cool Things with them, it is good that a teacher encouraged her towards her goals and dreams, and that she not only reached those goals and dreams (becoming a professional writer) but can even make a living from them. Regardless of the actual content of her writing and what I may think of it, that's quite an accomplishment on both their parts.
Now for the snark.
I would get a lot of judgement on the fact that I wrote genre fiction in college
Ahahaha, I knew she'd bring this up.
I was this shy kid from the middle of Indiana farm country that had decided she would be a horror writer as her profession. Can you imagine how badly that could have gone if I’d gotten the wrong teacher at the very beginning?
Would it really be that big a deal in Indiana farm country that someone wanted to write horror? Like I get this was a few decades ago and a rural area, but what would be the worst that could happen that couldn't happen anywhere else? Normally I'd not doubt someone to know the cultural climate of where they grew up and I've never been, but given LKH's persecution complex and drama queen tendencies, I feel like the most she would have gotten was being regarded as kinda weird and maybe some religious hostility from the more churchy sorts, whereas this comes off to me like she wants us to think she could have been exorcized and institutionalized.
I discovered Robert E. Howard’s short story collection, Pigeons from Hell, which solidified what kind of writer I wanted to be and I’ve never wavered from that decision. It led me to find other horror authors to read including Stephen King and Anne Rice, which would both influence my own writing, especially Salem’s Lot and Interview with the Vampire.
Then why are your books the way they are? I don't see ANY of these influences in LKH's work, aside from Rice in the most shallow and superficial of ways, with none of what actually made Interview truly compelling. Even Rice's vampires still had BITE under the pretty and the ponce, and pathos, and personality. LKH's don't. And they're certainly not scary like King's stuff. To be honest, the stuff she wrote as a kid actually sounds scarier than what she did now, but then again, we're just hearing about the concept; in execution, maybe they're as fail as AB (but with the excuse of having been the early work of a middle schooler)
Also, is it just me, or does she think she's the only 14 year old to ever write DARK AND EDGY stuff? Like that's not actually so unusual and weird at all, creative kids can often be perversely morbid because it seems to adult and taboo and they're going through the crappiness that is adolescence, I bet Miss Sheline actually saw a lot more of this stuff that LKH seems to think.
A PETITE BLACK-HAIRED PROTAGONIST, YOU DON'T SAY