I should know--I sporked the atrocity known as Twisted! A story so terrifyingly bad I hesitate to even read its sporking. :| *applauds you for actually making it through with your sanity intact*
Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks that if there's one thing hack writers are reasonably consistent about (no matter who they are), it's being completely narcissistic and spiteful? Because that's something I've noticed in Twilight too--as I was reading Mervin's Breaking Dawn sporking it occurred to me that it seemed as though the main reason why Bella was getting so much super-speshul, rare, expensive crap was just so Meyer's avatar could have it BEFORE/INSTEAD OF ANYONE ELSE (don't even get me started on the sippy-cup of O-negative blood)! Narcissists are narcissistic, who'da thunk it. :P
IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, I agree. (K.J. Taylor once made me a Cassandra Claire/Christopher Paolini shipping icon after I ranted that they should be married ~on the astral plane~ due to, as I recall, similarities in their wretched prose, generally shared attitudes, and a scene in the Draco Trilogy in which Ron basically received a gedwey ignasia on his forehead from Rowena Ravenclaw. I still use it. It still fits.)
I think the reason for this is that, in order to spill every detail of their personal wish-fulfillment onto paper and expect people to pay hard-earned money for it, professional Sueficcers have to have no shame whatsoever, a truly massive case of narcissism, or incredible naivete. I'm using the logician's "or", so "all three" is also a possibility.
If they make careers out of it, rather than curling up into the fetal position after the first serious criticism comes in, the third factor vanishes. Therefore they have to be cheerfully shameless or raging narcissists. The "cheerfully shameless" variety, if narcissism is not present, tend to be aware they are Mere Authors and so focus on outputting as much entertaining product as quickly as possible, since their ability to continue on in this lifestyle relies entirely upon the Dear Readers. As such, they tend to avoid complete hack status, even if they wind up being classed as 'This series is repetitive, puerile junk - repetitive, puerile junk of which I am buying Book 21, WTF?' authors. I think LKH once fell into this category.
I have to wonder if what Gary did was not so much editing her as keeping her worldview grounded - at least in the 'Laurell, nobody but you wants to hear about this stuff' sense. In retrospect, I think the proof that he DIDN'T edit the books is that LKH has never griped about his cruelly scorning her perfect prose. His avatar in the books was depicted as being angry at Anita's lifestyle, criticizing her ethics, and regarding her current husband with absolute contempt - and, given Shutdown, I'd really think we'd have seen Richard ripping some article Anita had written to shreds, only to be shouted down as a jealous hater, if he'd actually edited her at some point in the past. I mean, just look at "Anita's" obsession over her early criticism by Grandma.
...Coming back from that tangent, I believe LKH (and Meyer, and Paolini, etc.) falls into the "raging narcissist" category by default. And dimwitted narcissists are all about surface glitz and glamour. (Harshly, I don't think the narcissists who specialize in tearing actual power from others go into the novel-writing industry as a full-time job - they much prefer the L. Ron Hubbard route.)
And therefore, the most important thing to do is to have the very very bestest, even if it's never used. The original The Mask of Sanity actually goes into some detail on this in its case histories, as I recall. Surface is all there is, and the psychopaths then studied appeared outright confused by the idea that there could be anything more. They seemed to think that anyone who thought otherwise was A) just playing along with a big social pretense, B) being bizarrely overdramatic, or C) deliberately being obnoxious.
...
Oh, gad, C) is exactly what Anita expressed when she commented blithely that "You saying that it’s abuse is insulting; it would be like me saying that your idea of sex is boring.”
...
I'm sorry, I'm ending this comment here. I actually feel a little sick now.
no subject
A story so terrifyingly bad I hesitate to even read its sporking. :| *applauds you for actually making it through with your sanity intact*
Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks that if there's one thing hack writers are reasonably consistent about (no matter who they are), it's being completely narcissistic and spiteful? Because that's something I've noticed in Twilight too--as I was reading Mervin's Breaking Dawn sporking it occurred to me that it seemed as though the main reason why Bella was getting so much super-speshul, rare, expensive crap was just so Meyer's avatar could have it BEFORE/INSTEAD OF ANYONE ELSE (don't even get me started on the sippy-cup of O-negative blood)!
Narcissists are narcissistic, who'da thunk it. :P
IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, I agree. (K.J. Taylor once made me a Cassandra Claire/Christopher Paolini shipping icon after I ranted that they should be married ~on the astral plane~ due to, as I recall, similarities in their wretched prose, generally shared attitudes, and a scene in the Draco Trilogy in which Ron basically received a gedwey ignasia on his forehead from Rowena Ravenclaw. I still use it. It still fits.)
I think the reason for this is that, in order to spill every detail of their personal wish-fulfillment onto paper and expect people to pay hard-earned money for it, professional Sueficcers have to have no shame whatsoever, a truly massive case of narcissism, or incredible naivete. I'm using the logician's "or", so "all three" is also a possibility.
If they make careers out of it, rather than curling up into the fetal position after the first serious criticism comes in, the third factor vanishes. Therefore they have to be cheerfully shameless or raging narcissists. The "cheerfully shameless" variety, if narcissism is not present, tend to be aware they are Mere Authors and so focus on outputting as much entertaining product as quickly as possible, since their ability to continue on in this lifestyle relies entirely upon the Dear Readers. As such, they tend to avoid complete hack status, even if they wind up being classed as 'This series is repetitive, puerile junk - repetitive, puerile junk of which I am buying Book 21, WTF?' authors. I think LKH once fell into this category.
I have to wonder if what Gary did was not so much editing her as keeping her worldview grounded - at least in the 'Laurell, nobody but you wants to hear about this stuff' sense. In retrospect, I think the proof that he DIDN'T edit the books is that LKH has never griped about his cruelly scorning her perfect prose. His avatar in the books was depicted as being angry at Anita's lifestyle, criticizing her ethics, and regarding her current husband with absolute contempt - and, given Shutdown, I'd really think we'd have seen Richard ripping some article Anita had written to shreds, only to be shouted down as a jealous hater, if he'd actually edited her at some point in the past. I mean, just look at "Anita's" obsession over her early criticism by Grandma.
...Coming back from that tangent, I believe LKH (and Meyer, and Paolini, etc.) falls into the "raging narcissist" category by default. And dimwitted narcissists are all about surface glitz and glamour. (Harshly, I don't think the narcissists who specialize in tearing actual power from others go into the novel-writing industry as a full-time job - they much prefer the L. Ron Hubbard route.)
And therefore, the most important thing to do is to have the very very bestest, even if it's never used. The original The Mask of Sanity actually goes into some detail on this in its case histories, as I recall. Surface is all there is, and the psychopaths then studied appeared outright confused by the idea that there could be anything more. They seemed to think that anyone who thought otherwise was A) just playing along with a big social pretense, B) being bizarrely overdramatic, or C) deliberately being obnoxious.
...
Oh, gad, C) is exactly what Anita expressed when she commented blithely that
"You saying that it’s abuse is insulting;
it would be like me saying that your idea of sex is boring.”
...
I'm sorry, I'm ending this comment here. I actually feel a little sick now.