Here is an article I read today that just had me laughing:
http://www.comcast.net/art
To sum up, he called Stephenie Meyer's writing crap. Then trying to hedge his blunt statement added that her storytelling is compelling but only to those less educated than say himself and his friends. Um, wow! Here is a man who's been writing what amounts to violent pulp fiction for about 30 years and he's criticizing someone who's just starting out. Reality check please - anyone who's staring out in their craft is not going to be as good a writer/artist/actor, etc etc as they will be 30 years from now.
He continued to make me giggle to compare Stephanie to JK Rowling, in that JK's writing is so far superior to the Twilight novels. mKay - nother reality check here also - Mr. King how long has it been since you read The Sorcerer's Stone? Did you forget about all the writing techniques she butchered? For example, all the adverbs ending in -ly. Just about drove me insane. She said hesitantly. He said jokingly. She said longingly. He said descriptively. AAhhhhhh!!! But as anyone who read and enjoyed her novels ANYWAY would have noticed that by the time she got to Deathly Hallows her writing had greatly improved and was more polished. Hmmm, maybe its because she had been doing it for nearly a decade?
I think Stephen King's real beef might just be sour grapes. All his fanboys of the late seventies and eighties still read his novels but they have other things to distract them now, like jobs and kids. They're not throwing release parties at the local Barnes & Noble for the next one he puts out. The newest generation of readers can get just as much violence, sex, offensive language and gore turning on the TV or popping in a game in the ole XBox360. But then comes along Stephenie who manages to write a compelling romantic novel with thrilling themes to them but doesn't have any of the sex and gore that seems integral to his novels. And the kicker is - her books are flying off the shelves. But that's not the only kicker. Her fanbase is multi-generational. You can find whole families who have read her books from grandma to little sister. Some men even find enjoyment in them.
I've heard people criticize her books for being "safe". That means that she wasn't pushing any limits of decency in her books as the rest of the world defines them. But I think that what Mr. King maybe hasn't clued into yet is that people were tired of books that gave us what 'they' defined as hyper-reality. Maybe what we've been yearning for is a little safety - where you can open a book and read it and not worry about burning your eyes. I think there were a lot of people longing for the days of Charlotte Bronte and Jane Austin, where men were gentlemen and adored their ladies. I don't know. Maybe if Stephen King writes a book like that, he'd find a broader fanbase? Because despite his arrogant assumptions, he and the more educated people in the world make up a very small percentage of the book buying population.
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