although i am less than enamoured of OSC's views, i have nonetheless purchased the collections of Ultimate Iron Man 1 and 2.
Have you ever been turned off of an author's books...
- Thread starter Nerdius Maximus
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Some day I need to figure out how this quoting stuff works for this BBS....
Couple of posts about OSC beg the question why anyone would read his articles and opinions about subjects in which they disagree with OSC? Especially if those opinions are not preached in the book. Compare that to some elements in hollywood which is always pushing one agenda or another.....
Saw a post about Christopher, I guess I have not been around long enough to see what the problem is there so I dont get the arguement there.
Having a BBS where many of the authors who write the books we enjoy is a treat. They could just put up a facade in which they simply smile and nod their heads. I like hearing their insights etc about writing, Star Trek and the such. Like I said earlier I really try to ignore opinions on social and political issues and really dont care to hear them. But it happens from time to time in a public forums and I have to respect their freedom to have their own opinions.... even if their wrong
Couple of posts about OSC beg the question why anyone would read his articles and opinions about subjects in which they disagree with OSC? Especially if those opinions are not preached in the book. Compare that to some elements in hollywood which is always pushing one agenda or another.....
Saw a post about Christopher, I guess I have not been around long enough to see what the problem is there so I dont get the arguement there.
Having a BBS where many of the authors who write the books we enjoy is a treat. They could just put up a facade in which they simply smile and nod their heads. I like hearing their insights etc about writing, Star Trek and the such. Like I said earlier I really try to ignore opinions on social and political issues and really dont care to hear them. But it happens from time to time in a public forums and I have to respect their freedom to have their own opinions.... even if their wrong
Awww...don't stay away from Treklit entirely. You may find, like me, that the Ignore button comes in handy for that.
And I tried to give the author in my case a chance--not only was that person arrogant, but borderline stalked me across other parts of the forum and derailed a number of threads outside of Treklit over utterly ridiculous crap. It wasn't just one incident. It was absolutely relentless and I did not appreciate it at all.
I suppose that was kind of obvious, and a bit sad.
I don't like cruel people so, if I find out someone is, whether it's to me or simply in my presence they're pretty much off the list.
Political stuff, for the most part doesn't qualify but, when it comes to ethnic, gender or faith-related prejudice it tends to be a deal breaker.
Political stuff, for the most part doesn't qualify but, when it comes to ethnic, gender or faith-related prejudice it tends to be a deal breaker.
Something like this happened to Warren Ellis, iirc.
TheLonelySquire
Vice Admiral
There was a very popular trilogy that I returned a couple of years ago (or was it last year?). I didn't care for some of the things promoted within it as well as some of the political parallels it was attempting to draw.
I'm certain of it. With any kind of entertainment, be it music, movies, books, whatever, some fans seem to have this sense of entitlement, as if everything the artist does should conform to the fans' personal preferences.
Is he a jerk? Just wondering.. his blog is pretty interesting sometimes which I find funny because he's my least favorite treklit and I find it torture when I have to read one of his books because it's in a series I'm following.
I have a very few beloved Treklit authors and if they started posting here and were really unpleasant I would stop reading the forum because I wouldn't want to taint the magic.
Oh! I finally thought of what really applies for me. He's not a writer, but I can no longer tolerate Ben Stein in the slightest, thanks to his creationist, anti-evolution spiels. (I'll grant that, as a biologist, I'm a little sensitive on the topic. But I can't stand someone who'll voluntary discount mounds of evidence to suit their own purposes. )
It's a shame, too, because I really thought he was smarter than that.
It's a shame, too, because I really thought he was smarter than that.
Cant say it's happened to me with authors, but definately several musicians come to mind... one suce case was not necessarily that they were dicks, but that they were talentless hacks that dont even know how to READ music much less write a song of their own! (not to mention auto-tune)
I have to say that I do normally try to keep the art separate from the artist. Sometimes this works (the above-cited Alfred Hitchcock and Errol Flynn are great examples), and sometimes (as in the case of Lawrence Miles, sadly) it...doesn't.
There are exceptions for me, though. I used to read everything Peter David wrote, Trek and non-Trek (I was, and still am, exceptionally fond of his run on The Incredible Hulk). At one point, I had a chance to speak with him at a Shore Leave convention, and had the opportunity to thank him for a particular storyline that had resonated emotionally with me and had really meant a lot to me. He was bemused and unreceptive and kind of blew me off. Now, I'd have put that down to a bad day or even inadvertent pushiness on my own part or whatever, but I subsequently met and spoke with him several times after that, and in both my own interactions with him and those I observed between him and other fans, I've rarely seen him be anything other than curt. Now, that hasn't stopped me from buying his books (the gradually declining quality of the books themselves has taken care of that--hi there Before Dishonor), but it does leave a slightly bad taste in my mouth at the thought of the man himself.
As for writers in general, though, it does bear mentioning that writing is by its nature, a solitary profession, and as some here have mentioned, it's not necessarily easy to find oneself in a situation where you're interacting with fans of your work. With regard to Christopher in particular, while it's true that I have sometimes found him to be a bit prickly online (not that that's a crime, by any means), the one time I met him I found him to be very polite and charming, and frankly a bit shy.
There are exceptions for me, though. I used to read everything Peter David wrote, Trek and non-Trek (I was, and still am, exceptionally fond of his run on The Incredible Hulk). At one point, I had a chance to speak with him at a Shore Leave convention, and had the opportunity to thank him for a particular storyline that had resonated emotionally with me and had really meant a lot to me. He was bemused and unreceptive and kind of blew me off. Now, I'd have put that down to a bad day or even inadvertent pushiness on my own part or whatever, but I subsequently met and spoke with him several times after that, and in both my own interactions with him and those I observed between him and other fans, I've rarely seen him be anything other than curt. Now, that hasn't stopped me from buying his books (the gradually declining quality of the books themselves has taken care of that--hi there Before Dishonor), but it does leave a slightly bad taste in my mouth at the thought of the man himself.
As for writers in general, though, it does bear mentioning that writing is by its nature, a solitary profession, and as some here have mentioned, it's not necessarily easy to find oneself in a situation where you're interacting with fans of your work. With regard to Christopher in particular, while it's true that I have sometimes found him to be a bit prickly online (not that that's a crime, by any means), the one time I met him I found him to be very polite and charming, and frankly a bit shy.
I don't agree with the fact that he's adopted young-Earth creationism at all. It doesn't anger me as it does you, but I do think he missed a major opportunity to reconcile the false conflict between science and religion--not discrediting evidence or warping science, but accepting it as it is and learning to see the beauty of the Creation through it.
Several years ago when Orson Scott Card had that rant about his books being better than Star Trek
Followed by another tirade where he was basically calling people who bought Star Trek and Star Wars books idiots because they didn't understand his work.
There's also a Star Trek author who I simply will not support because he/she is a presumed know-it-all. You would think this person has lived a hundred thousand years, read every book ever written, watched every movie ever made, and been behind every closed door meeting in the history of the universe.
Followed by another tirade where he was basically calling people who bought Star Trek and Star Wars books idiots because they didn't understand his work.
There's also a Star Trek author who I simply will not support because he/she is a presumed know-it-all. You would think this person has lived a hundred thousand years, read every book ever written, watched every movie ever made, and been behind every closed door meeting in the history of the universe.
Yes, we must curb our participation in a bbs to suit the preferences of other participants.
Regards, another "know-it-all". (With the PMs to prove it.)
Yep, exactly. Extensive knowledge isn't a problem--using it with the intent of humiliating others is, as is not knowing when to let it go when others disagree. It's not WHAT you say that determines how it's taken...it's HOW you say it. That doesn't even mean not correcting people when they're wrong--but do it with a dose of humor and an even bigger dose of humility, and the way people receive you will do a 180.
And you know the intent in those posts because...?
I found Peter David to be quite cordial with me the one time I talked to him. Of course, we had a common interest... bowling.
This can't be emphasized enough. There are no facial expressions or body language in these posts. Most of us don't really know each other. When all you have is a few sentences in text, it's really easy to read in something that isn't there. Anyone who's been online more than fifteen minutes has experienced both sides of that -- misunderstanding someone else, and being misunderstood by someone else.
And that's without getting into all the other things that can cause problems in online conversations, like cultural differences, differences in communication styles, and, sometimes, good people having bad days.
I've got my own notions of what some people around here are like based on their posts. I have serious doubts that many of them would last more than five minutes in the physical presence of said people.
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