Can you enjoy the work of an author if s/he is a total jerk?
- Cee-Jay Aurinko
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Re: Can you enjoy the work of an author if s/he is a total j
Authors aren't really social creatures. A rare few might be, but not a lot. Writers spend a lot of time reading, writing, thinking, planning, repeating. Mentally, doing this from day to day, can be exhausting. This is why some authors can be really rude or just plain cold sometimes. Putting all that feeling and emotion down on paper takes a lot out of them.
- Rabidwerewolfie
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I found that quite insightful and it definitely has a ring of truth to it. With me, I'm absolutely not a social creature. I like socializing on the internet, but in person I'm a huge bundle of self-conscious frumpiness. :geek: Writing doesn't exhaust me, but I need to add that I'm unemployed and choose my own hours with both writing and home remodeling (currently in the kitchen). Putting the feeling and emotion on paper doesn't exhaust me either, but it takes me someplace and distracts me, which has the same effect of making me unreachable and possibly not fun to be with. (My dad bears the brunt of most of this.)Leon Durham wrote:It won't matter much to me what type of persons authors are in their real life. Jerk or not, if the book is good, it's good. If it's bad, well...
Authors aren't really social creatures. A rare few might be, but not a lot. Writers spend a lot of time reading, writing, thinking, planning, repeating. Mentally, doing this from day to day, can be exhausting. This is why some authors can be really rude or just plain cold sometimes. Putting all that feeling and emotion down on paper takes a lot out of them.
I liked your post!!
- sdavaloz88
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I would not buy that book for any of them to benefit financially. I might read it from a library or such.
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I think the best case of this topic--and I know it's completely fictional (oops, to those who haven't read it)--is the classic "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. The reader knows the narrator is a horrible man through his perversions and actions. And yet, to this day, it is regarded as one of the most important, and one of the most beautiful works of art in the postmodern era. Is it possible to separate the author and hers/his work? Obviously. Does appreciating the work of a crooked author make the reader a morally bad person? I think we're in the middle of that as a culture. I mean, examples are everywhere: the latest and most popular case of Bill Cosby; the myriad of rappers that rap about killing and robbing over sick beats. I think that's what Nabokov hints at in his multiple deceptions.
I live in both neighborhoods: I can't separate the two, yet I can read a work without thinking of the name that wrote it. Too much objectivity sours my milk. That's no way to enjoy it. And The Virgin Suicides was an alright movie. Could've used more dragons, though.
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The Virgin Suicides? I was watching that movie once several years ago--maybe even several decades--and I noticed that the tree that was cut down was there again at the end of the movie. Weirdness. Talk about your awful mistakes directing a movie!! And I totally agree that the movie needed more dragons.
- Max Tyrone
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And I never noticed that in the movie, granted that I only saw it once. Editing only has one job!
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Yeah, I'm telling ya, I encountered walking egos like that in college, and I just hate people like that! I mean, geez. How hard is it to criticize someone's story privately?
Welcome to the forums!
- Max Tyrone
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And thanks!
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- BlaqkViolette
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I don't expect authors to be social adept or by any mean an extrovert, but I do expect them to have manners and not be rude regarding other people's work if there is no justification or constructive criticism.
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