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Do you like these authors?

ChristineM

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Don't like Stephen King. He's a machine for churning out books with his name on front cover. I have an hypothesis that despite this high book sales, the majority are never read, they just sit on coffee tables displaying the authors name.

Never read Stine.

The other two are ok.

My faves are...

Terry Pratchett.
Iain M Banks (and Iain Banks). Same author different genres
Douglas Adams.
Steven Saylor
Lindsey Davis
...
 
The Hammer

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
ChristineM said:
Don't like Stephen King. He's a machine for churning out books with his name on front cover. I have an hypothesis that despite this high book sales, the majority are never read, they just sit on coffee tables displaying the authors name.

Never read Stine.

The other two are ok.

My faves are...

Terry Pratchett.
Iain M Banks (and Iain Banks). Same author different genres
Douglas Adams.
Steven Saylor
Lindsey Davis
...
Click to expand...

King is certainly a Pop author. But he does have quite a few good stories, I do like many of his works. Cujo, Thinner, Pet Semetary, Under the Dome, Dark Tower Series, It, The Green Mile Novellas, and I could go on, but I won't.
 
The Hammer

The Hammer

[REDACTED]
Premium Member
Frank Goad said:
H. P. Lovecraft

R. L. Stine

Stephen King

Edgar Allan Poe

I have read a few stories by all of them.:)

What about you?
Click to expand...

I like King occasionally.

I used to read a lot of RL Stine and some Poe when I was younger.

And HP Lovecraft is good, but I often have a hard time following his stories.
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
Frank Goad said:
H. P. Lovecraft

R. L. Stine

Stephen King

Edgar Allan Poe

I have read a few stories by all of them.:)

What about you?
Click to expand...
Hmmm, ... I'm a snob when it comes to art, whatever the medium. So I see these writers more as "popular entertainers" then as literary artists. Don't get me wrong, I like entertainment as much as the next guy, and there's nothing wrong with being an entertainer. But what I really look for in life is the art. It's the difference between, "Sure, that's a fine thing" and "Wow! That's amazing!". It's the difference between Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. Billie Eilish is an artist that makes music.Olivia Rodrigo is a singer that's trying to be a pop star.
 
Heyo

Heyo

Veteran Member
PureX said:
Hmmm, ... I'm a snob when it comes to art, whatever the medium. So I see these writers more as "popular entertainers" then as literary artists. Don't get me wrong, I like entertainment as much as the next guy, and there's nothing wrong with being an entertainer. But what I really look for in life is the art. It's the difference between, "Sure, that's a fine thing" and "Wow! That's amazing!". It's the difference between Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. Billie Eilish is an artist that makes music.Olivia Rodrigo is a singer that's trying to be a pop star.
Click to expand...
How much have you read from E. A. Poe? Have you read the poems, The Raven, Lenore?
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
Heyo said:
How much have you read from E. A. Poe? Have you read the poems, The Raven, Lenore?
Click to expand...
Yes. It's become 'pop-poetry'. Sometimes that happens even when the author didn't necessarily mean for it to happen.
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
Heyo said:
So, if something becomes popular, it ceases to be art?
Click to expand...
It's not about it being art, in this case, it's about it being good art. I think when Poe was writing, he was doing something interesting, and new, and even somewhat shocking. He was creating the "horror" genre. But as time has moved on, and society has changed, his work has become fairly conventional by comparison. There are now a thousand B-grade horror movies and 'thrillers' around that have used his conventions and contrived plenty more. Poe's work has kind of gotten lost in a sea of popular horror-as-entertainment stories. Sometimes it just happens that way.
 
ChristineM

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
PureX said:
It's not about it being art, in this case, it's about it being good art. I think when Poe was writing, he was doing something interesting, and new, and even somewhat shocking. He was re-creating the "horror" genre. But as time has moved on, and society has changed, his work has become fairly conventional by comparison. There are now a thousand B-grade horror movies and 'thrillers' around that have used his conventions and contrived plenty more. Poe's work has kind of gotten lost in a sea of popular horror-as-entertainment stories. Sometimes it just happens that way.
Click to expand...

Yes, great artists are often mimicked
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
ChristineM said:
Yes, great artists are often mimicked
Click to expand...
Actually, the really great artists are almost never mimicked. Everyone would know, and no one can do it as well as the original. It's the sometimes-great artists that get robbed and mimicked, because they can be.
 
Heyo

Heyo

Veteran Member
PureX said:
It's not about it being art, in this case, it's about it being good art. I think when Poe was writing, he was doing something interesting, and new, and even somewhat shocking. He was creating the "horror" genre. But as time has moved on, and society has changed, his work has become fairly conventional by comparison. There are now a thousand B-grade horror movies and 'thrillers' around that have used his conventions and contrived plenty more. Poe's work has kind of gotten lost in a sea of popular horror-as-entertainment stories. Sometimes it just happens that way.
Click to expand...
Do you also think that Da Vinci, Shakespeare and Bach have become "bad art" because others have copied them (often, as with Poe, never reaching the class of the original)?
 
ChristineM

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
PureX said:
Actually, the really great artists are almost never mimicked. Everyone would know, and no one can do it as well as the original. It's the sometimes-great artists that get robbed and mimicked, because they can be.
Click to expand...

The art of words is quite easy to mimick as you have indicated. It doesn't suddenly stop being art because someone copies the style
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
Heyo said:
Do you also think that Da Vinci, Shakespeare and Bach have become "bad art" because others have copied them (often, as with Poe, never reaching the class of the original)?
Click to expand...
Who has copied Da Vinci, Shakespeare, and Bach? See ... no one knows who they are. It's only when one transcends copying someone else and expresses themselves that their work becomes memorable.

Look, the OP was asking us what we LIKE OR DON'T LIKE about these people's work. I'm not impressed by Poe's work because time has drowned it in an ocean of mediocre similarity.That's not his fault, but it says something about his work, I think. And I wasn't particularly impressed by it otherwise, either. His drug-addled nightmares just don't inspire me. They're like pornography but about fear instead of sex. It's all just weird and uncomfortable, and most of all it's pointless. I'm not saying it shouldn't exist, or that it's not art. I'm saying I don't much care for it, and this is why.

On the other hand, at the time Poe was writing, I think it was somewhat important. Because until that time, people were too afraid to address that kind of content out loud (for fear of the church, as well as other things). So in his day, I think he was quite relevant. But I'm not living in his day. None of us are. And so in our time his content has mostly become just 'cheap thrills' for fun and profit, i.e., pop entertainment.
 
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