12-04-2005 10:11									#1
	How much are books representative of their authors personalities? Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Though I'm not supposed to, I always think of stories and books (fiction) as extensions of the authors themselves, a reflection on them and their personalities, so that if Dune seems pretty dense and impenetrable it's because Frank Herbert is dense and impenetrable (at least on the subjects of desert ecologies and Messiahood (and others)). If Stephen King's writing is breezy and has an Everyman quality to it, that's because he himself seems to be a Normal Guy (his life has definitely run the gamut of modern American existence, hasn't it?) Even the people who wrote the Left Behind books - you know that they speak, as their books, in monosyballic declarative sentences, the conspiracy theories in their mind growing more intricate as the night unfolds and the Bible is reread, reread.

So, I don't know, but I think that if you don't like, say, Stephen R. Donaldson the writer, you'll probably find yourself uncomfortable around SRD the man. I know my Lit prof. told us not to "mistake the book for the author", and I know the truth in that, but I still think their writing style (as opposed to subject matter) tells us a lot about the person writing it.

Agee? Disagree? Don't Care? Discuss while I sleep... I'll see y'all in the morning.

	12-04-2005 10:17									#2
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Definately. There's some authors I just like because their personality really shines through their work for a lot of these authors I can forgive a lot since they seem like such nice people.

	12-04-2005 10:18									#3
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I haven't met very many authors

I think that you can sometimes be surprised.. but what you say might be true in general

I basically don't have enough data points

Jon Miller

	12-04-2005 17:26									#4
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I've been noticing that all my stories seem to end with the main character being very alone and sad...

	12-04-2005 17:51									#5
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One thing I don't like is seeing a picture of the author on the back-cover, it often somewhat spoils it for me.

	12-04-2005 18:05									#6
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quote: Originally posted by alva One thing I don't like is seeing a picture of the author on the back-cover, it often somewhat spoils it for me.

Mmmm, especially if it was Barbara Cartland or Andrea Dworkin (R.I.P.) or Henry Kissinger .


So troublesome to wipe vomit off the dustjacket and pages.

	12-04-2005 18:06									#7
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I think Philip K Dick's work (especially VALIS) is pretty much like the guy - iworks of genius that border on and often cross the line dividing sanity and complete madness...

	12-04-2005 20:44									#8
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I know plenty of people like Orson Scott Card's fiction but entirely disagree with his beliefs, but then I guess some of these people say he's still a nice guy when you meet him.

	12-04-2005 20:57									#9
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I don't neccesarily agree with the books I read

that in fact has little to do with what books I read

Jon Miller

	12-04-2005 21:33									#10
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OSC's fiction has little to do with the beliefs of his religion.

	12-04-2005 21:33									#11
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Go and Google "Roland Barthes" "Death of the Author".

This style of criticism has probably had its day now, but most modern critics would still agree that the reader brings as much to the text as the author does.

	12-04-2005 22:26									#12
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quote: Originally posted by duke o' york Go and Google "Roland Barthes" "Death of the Author". This style of criticism has probably had its day now, but most modern critics would still agree that the reader brings as much to the text as the author does.

Do ya wanna know the creeda
Jacques Derrida?
There ain’t no reeda.
And there ain’t no rida,
eida.

	12-04-2005 22:48									#13
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quote: Originally posted by duke o' york Go and Google "Roland Barthes" "Death of the Author". This style of criticism has probably had its day now, but most modern critics would still agree that the reader brings as much to the text as the author does.

Which does nothing but beg the question.

And while I read your links, it's been quite a while since I've had to debate the intricacies of well-sounding BS (I was lead to this page), but that seems to be a lot of words to explain the fact that we're human, imperfect, with poorly understood mental and biological functions.

Gotta love the hubris though:

quote: And in any case in a university we are responsible for more than common sense. We are responsible for the charted and uncharted implications of human thought and action, and so we must proceed with openness and care.

(2nd to last paragraph in above link.)

	13-04-2005 05:15									#14
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Yeah... the French seem to like to spend oh so much energy on stating the obvious and then exaggerating it ad nauseum. Baudrillard for example spent half his career telling us how TV had ruined western civilization.

..... well, duh! I'll sum it up for you Jean - "Video killed the radio star".

	13-04-2005 11:38									#15
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I would say to some degree, because the books represent how the author view this world. So if the author is optimistic, his books will also. So I reckon it's the overall tone and the messages (if any).

	13-04-2005 12:25									#16
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quote: Originally posted by Brent OSC's fiction has little to do with the beliefs of his religion.

Such as the Alvin Maker series ?

	13-04-2005 18:29									#17
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Jeffrey Archer's books are shiite.


Quod erat demonstrandum.

	13-04-2005 18:58									#18
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OSC's books are precisely the sort of thing his religion instructs people to stay away from.

	13-04-2005 20:09									#19
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quote: Originally posted by molly bloom Jeffrey Archer's books are shiite. Quod erat demonstrandum.

Though I must admit his Kane and Abel made for some good reading when I was in the 8th grade. I remember reading it back-to-back with Sidney Sheldon's The Master of the Game, the Greatest Schlock Novel Ever.

	13-04-2005 20:29									#20
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I've noticed one irony in Walter Mosley's novels is that his Afican-American main characters tend to be suspecious of Whites if not outright hostile to them, but a great many White characters in the books are really decent human beings.

Mosley's doing a small campaign here in L.A. to promote his books, and I notice that his stops are all in White areas. Kind of a strange thing to do for an African-American author.

	13-04-2005 20:33									#21
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quote: Originally posted by Zkribbler I've noticed one irony in Walter Mosley's novels is that his Afican-American main characters tend to be suspecious of Whites if not outright hostile to them, but a great many White characters in the books are really decent human beings. Mosley's doing a small campaign here in L.A. to promote his books, and I notice that his stops are all in White areas. Kind of a strange thing to do for an African-American author.

Well, good for him! I read his Blue Light a year or two ago and enjoyed it, even though I thought it was kind of a mess.

	13-04-2005 20:41									#22
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Blue Light was one of the few things by him I didn't like.

His lastest Easy Rawlins novel (Little Scarlet) and his latest Fearless Jones novel (Fear Itself) are terrific.

	13-04-2005 21:17									#23
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quote: Originally posted by Brent OSC's books are precisely the sort of thing his religion instructs people to stay away from.

Wha?!