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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 11:42 pm 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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Bubbles had a poll attendant class thing way across town, so I decided to sit in the car and read rather than go home and turn around and come back. I went to the local library and picked up a Rita Mae Brown mystery. One of the ones that she does with animals. This one had dogs. I hope to all that is holy that they are intended for Young Readers, but even that is no excuse for a lack of cohesive plot, believable characters and dialogue. What a stinker. Makes me wonder if Ruby Fruit Jungle was a fluke and now I am afraid to go back and reread it.

Anne McCaffery lost it as she got older, but had a co-writer that kept her on track. Terry Pratchett is currently also working with co-writers and I think his wife is also helping, but you can tell he is slipping and it makes me terribly sad. Frank Herbert never quite repeated the majesty that is Dune.

Who has disappointed you when you ran out to get the book, to fill your mind with that flavor of writing you loved so well only to go "patooie"?

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 11:50 pm 
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I would say GRRM but he has his own thread... I guess Stephen King would fit.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:03 am 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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I was wondering about GRRM, but I have not read his entire run yet. Also have not read much King.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:06 am 
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I did not know you'd read any GRRM.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 9:21 am 
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Does Frank Miller count? Cause boy howdy.


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 9:29 am 
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Tricky, King is a good choice because his earlier stuff; IT, The Shining, Carrie and Skeleton Crew and so on...fantastic work by a HUNGRY writer full of fire and yeah..booze and drugs.
Later King is sort of like Aerosmith after they got clean. Still killer material that I still like very much, but it doesn't hold a candle to the early work and seems almost to be another writer.

For Comics Miller and Byrne both count.

I'm really into Brian Keene these days, going from book to book. A lot of people say he lost it and his current work isn't as good as his older, but..I'm not reading the books in published order so I'm not getting that.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 9:54 am 
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Most prolific writers seem to slip over time. I suppose it's an occupational hazard. A lot of them get trapped into a particular formula or set of conventions where it becomes hard to say anything new. Then you've got those like J.K. Rowling who make their fortunes with one kind of work, but really want to be remembered for something else and end up disappointing their fans by not dishing up endless helpings of the same stuff. Then you've got a growing list of "name" authors who hire somebody else to do the grunt work of actually writing the books for them, and deceased authors whose names somehow keep appearing on a book a year for years after they're gone.

It happens with authors of nonfiction too. The historian John Keegan's last book was a big let-down in terms of quality of analysis and writing. His health must really have undermined his work.

I'll say this much--as a public librarian who does the book ordering for our library, I get the distinct impression that most readers don't mind all that much. They seem to LIKE reading the same book with the title changed over and over again! How else to explain how there can be at least half a dozen different authors who specialize in Amish romances?

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:17 am 
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Boring but true

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Jean Auel

Julian May

Agree with Stephen King although I think The Green Mile was one of his best books...


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:20 am 
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I really enjoyed Bag of Bones, and that's later King.


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 12:20 pm 
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Boring but true

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Poul Anderson, come to think of it. I only tired one of his later books (something like The city and the stars, or some thing) but couldn't get on with it at all. I really liked his earlier stuff.


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 1:27 pm 
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The author Don Delillo, who wroteThe Names, Running Dog, White Noise, and Libra (a fictional account of the Kennedy Assassination) has lost it in recent years. He can easily be classified as one of America's great authors but he's done nothing to build on this legacy in the last ten years. I think it's mostly just age though.

Alice Munro, who is probably North America's greatest living short story writer, has begun to slip in recent years too. I think that's age as well, or the publisher trying to clean out her closet of old work and subsequently publishing substandard material.

The biggest "lost powers" writer of all time might be William Faulkner. After writing and publishing one of the most amazing series of books in just a few short years, he went on to make a career out of publishing mediocre novels, one after another, throughout his life. But As I Lay Dying, Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, and the others he published in such a short period of time strike me as a mind boggling achievement. I simply don't don't understand how he was able to accomplish what he did in such a short time period, especially when drinking as much as he did.

Also, it's film, but Citizen Kane is an interesting animal. Orson Welles didn't do much after completing that film at the age of 25.


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 1:37 pm 
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It scorched

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Ken Follet. Started with tight spy thrillers like Eye of the Needle, moved to family drama intrigue. He's been hacking it out for years now.

I heard his latest WWI trilogy might be good, but I'm wary.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:48 pm 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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Steve wrote:
Does Frank Miller count? Cause boy howdy.

Yes. Oh, yes.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 5:55 pm 
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Still Not A Dalmatian In A Jaunty Beret

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And Truman Capote. I think In Cold Blood traumatized him, plus the curse of the Wunderkind that also afflicted Orson Welles. Add alcohol and shakeshakeshake.

Amish romances? Really? Wow.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:05 pm 
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It scorched

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The Human Top wrote:
Alice Munro, who is probably North America's greatest living short story writer, has begun to slip in recent years too. I think that's age as well, or the publisher trying to clean out her closet of old work and subsequently publishing substandard material.


I've enjoyed her right up until the present.

Quote:
The biggest "lost powers" writer of all time might be William Faulkner. After writing and publishing one of the most amazing series of books in just a few short years, he went on to make a career out of publishing mediocre novels, one after another, throughout his life. But As I Lay Dying, Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, and the others he published in such a short period of time strike me as a mind boggling achievement. I simply don't don't understand how he was able to accomplish what he did in such a short time period, especially when drinking as much as he did.


And yet, this is a fairly common theme for the greatest of books. They tend to be written when the writer is young. Not super-young, not usually a first novel. But the vast majority of classic novels appear within the first 3 or 4 books by an author. And the vast majority of such authors finish out their writing lives with works that never satisfy like the early ones.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:28 pm 
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I am an earthling.

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Li'l Jay wrote:
Ken Follet. Started with tight spy thrillers like Eye of the Needle, moved to family drama intrigue. He's been hacking it out for years now.

I heard his latest WWI trilogy might be good, but I'm wary.

Didn't he write Pillars of the Earth? Mrs. Strange loved that.


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 9:50 pm 
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Lil Jay,

In regards to Alice Munro: Did you enjoy Too Much Happiness and View from Castle Rock? Those were the two that felt off the mark for me. Still okay, but not as strong as the others. And Too Much Happiness felt like "outtakes" to me. BTW nice to encounter another reader of her work here :)


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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:44 pm 
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It scorched

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Stephen Strange wrote:
Li'l Jay wrote:
Ken Follet. Started with tight spy thrillers like Eye of the Needle, moved to family drama intrigue. He's been hacking it out for years now.

I heard his latest WWI trilogy might be good, but I'm wary.

Didn't he write Pillars of the Earth? Mrs. Strange loved that.


Yes, in the late 80's, and I also loved it. That was supposed to be the "family drama intrigue" I was referring to.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:46 pm 
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It scorched

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The Human Top wrote:
Lil Jay,

In regards to Alice Munro: Did you enjoy Too Much Happiness and View from Castle Rock? Those were the two that felt off the mark for me. Still okay, but not as strong as the others. And Too Much Happiness felt like "outtakes" to me. BTW nice to encounter another reader of her work here :)


I enjoyed Too Much Happiness and Dear Life, her last two books. I haven't read View from Castle Rock (may have read some stories in the New Yorker, I don't know).

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:47 pm 
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It scorched

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But your remarks encourage me to work my way backwards and read all of her books. Because if her recent work is weaker, then it must be really amazing in her prime. I agree, she is the current reigning master of the short story.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:34 pm 
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Tuna wrote:
Amish romances? Really? Wow.


Very real, and we have some dedicated readers who can't get enough of them. Google "Amish romances" and the image search will turn up dozens of covers for novels by different authors. They're popular among readers who want something more restrained than the bodice-rippers and vampires that are such a staple of the romance genre today. The writers do a lot of research and seem to respect Amish culture, but the Amish themselves reportedly don't like them. I guess to them it's about as welcome as having tourists gawking at their carriages and taking pictures of them.

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 Post subject: Authors Who Have Lost Their Powers
PostPosted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 2:15 pm 
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It scorched

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That meddlin kid wrote:
Tuna wrote:
Amish romances? Really? Wow.


Very real, and we have some dedicated readers who can't get enough of them. Google "Amish romances" and the image search will turn up dozens of covers for novels by different authors. They're popular among readers who want something more restrained than the bodice-rippers and vampires that are such a staple of the romance genre today. The writers do a lot of research and seem to respect Amish culture, but the Amish themselves reportedly don't like them. I guess to them it's about as welcome as having tourists gawking at their carriages and taking pictures of them.


I think it's because restraint is sexy and romantic -- the delayed gratification of desire, for the whole person. And in society at large, we've lost all ability to conceptualize anyone practicing that kind of restraint for any reason that's not weird or "Christian." And so Amish is way at getting there -- of getting back to the kind of romance where there's a real buildup.

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