I suppose we've seen it before. A writer or filmmaker (heck, let's even include singer or actor) makes a HUGE hit with something, sparking a popularity that endears die-hard fans to digest everything he or she ever puts out again (whether good or not-so-good), and eventually the quality of work starts to reveal that the artist is not even trying. I suppose this is old news, to the point of being cliche.
I have recently read a collection of short stories by a well-respected writer of science fiction, and it amazed me that I did not enjoy one single story included in it. Not one! I have read this person's work before, and although I do not collect his works or go out of my way to find or buy more than the few books that I have already owned since I was young, I did always plan to check out more of them. After reading a sampling of his "choice" offerings, collected in a book that I came across for free and thus couldn't pass up, I was blown away by the truth behind the cliched concept I mentioned above. Few of the stories had actual stories to them, and almost all of them were overly dependent on incorporating factual science to the point of making the stories less interesting. I actually always respected the author (I won't say his name, even though he is no longer among the living) and his adherence to "real science," but to be honest I was never encouraged to become a fan of his--and I even hated a book he wrote. The short stories in this collection were each preceded by publication details, and later ones were very short on information pertaining to what it took to get them published. The reason was obvious; for those tales he had already attained a level of fame that was so great he no longer had to jump through hoops to get his pieces accepted. And apparently this is not a good thing. When all you have to do is meet a word count and send something off knowing it will automatically be accepted, you don't have to work very hard at coming up with stories that are all that interesting--or good. You can just write about whatever appeals to you at the moment, send it off, and bingo, another "hit" is attributed to you. This is a very hard blog for me to write, and I have been considering deleting the whole thing every few minutes as I write it, but it's actually been nagging at me for weeks (that's how long I've been avoiding writing it) till I finally gave in. The reason it's so tough is because I do have a genuine respect for the author. But knowing firsthand the difficulty trying to get your beloved "child" adopted into a home where it will be appreciated and hopefully loved, it is galling when you see another deliver something so unimpressive and have it approved with the greatest of ease--all because it was crafted by someone with a household name. An unexpected mystery I was faced with was how the earlier stories made it into a magazine in the first place and how the person became a name at all. Growing up, I just accepted it as given that he was one of the greats, but how did he become that? What was presented in the collection that I struggled to get through showed stories from different points in his career, but none impressed me or offered even a hint of how his reputation could have been secured. And to top it all off, there was little to no diversity in the tales. One thing that impresses me is when a creator proves his mettle by tackling a variety of themes from a variety of voices (this is also why I am more impressed with directors like Richard Donner over "auteur" directors like... well, I won't name names). And now you know why the late Richard Matheson is one of my favorite authors of all. But this selection was just a series of bland anecdotes that left me feeling glad about one thing--that I didn't pay a cent for it. I still don't know if I should delete this or publish it. I don't like to rant against an author's work, especially when he is not even here to defend it. It's a close call. Delete or Publish? Delete of Publish? Delete or...
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AuthorCreator of the Canis Sapiens series, Anthony Regolino created this blog to discuss his work, upcoming projects, and writing in general. Archives
April 2023
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