Do you prefer your authors dead or alive?
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
November 28, 2015 2:55pm CST
I know it sounds like a strange question but how do you like your writers - old, established and long dead, or full of life and still bearing the potential to stun or disappoint depending on the next book?
This thought has been bouncing around my head since I started reading Rudyard Kipling's 'Tales from the Hills' and knowing that if he were alive and kicking today, I'd be forced to denounce his prejudiced ways and I'd probably feel bad about being a fan. Instead, knowing that he's as dead as a dodo, I can put his questionable attitudes to natives and caste down to being 'of their time' and get back to enjoying his gossipy stories of Himalayan life. I also know that because he's dead, there's only a finite portfolio of his work and once I've finished, there can be no more. I cherish them and ration out the reading.
Conversely, a living author can disappoint you deeply. I remember when I had tickets to see Kurt Vonnegut at a book shop reading in Manchester and he cancelled the day before because he refused to go anywhere other than London. That was an end to me buying his books. Similarly I can no longer bring myself to read any further John Grisham novels (not that I was a great fan) after reading his opinions about child pornography in the newspaper. Out went any of his books from my shelf the next day.
Living authors still keep you excited waiting for their next volume, waiting to see what direction they might take next. But they can also let you down so badly that it's easy to take it personally.
On balance I can't decide between the two. How about you? Do you prefer your authors dead or alive?
31 people like this
18 responses
@celticeagle (166660)
• Boise, Idaho
28 Nov 15
I really like many of both. And, the good ones never stick around long enough anyway.
5 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
29 Nov 15
I like then alive and writing. If I enjoy an author, I don't want to finish all of their books.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
29 Nov 15
@marlina One recent trend that I dislike, is authors using ghost writers and putting their names on the books. I believe they come up with the premise, and their ghost writers do the rest of the work. I don't mean non-writers doing this, but mainstream ones like Tom Clancey. Bummer.
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
29 Nov 15
@ElizabethWallace I agree. A lot of thriller writers are doing this and it smells like cheating to me.
1 person likes this
@Juliothemadpoet (90)
• Bangalore, India
28 Nov 15
I love Dean Koontz, every single book of his is amazing.
the most complete writer that I've encountered.
1 person likes this
@cindiowens (5120)
• North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
28 Nov 15
It doesn't really matter as long as they finish the story. JK I like reading both.
2 people like this
@LeaPea2417 (37350)
• Toccoa, Georgia
29 Nov 15
It doesn't matter to me, I will read anything.
1 person likes this
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
29 Nov 15
I'm not an author person either way. I try to let the narratives speak for themselves and don't worry too much about the writer's prejudices and proclivities until I'm done with the text. Orson Scott Card is my modern example. I think he's a fabulous storyteller but I don't agree one whit with his homophobia.
@troyburns (1405)
• New Zealand
30 Nov 15
@boiboing - He's a SF writer, probably best known for Ender's Game.
@JudyEv (339395)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Nov 15
I don't have a preference but I do find older fiction books interesting in terms of what they reveal about the life and times of the period. I have a children's book set in outback Australia and written in 1955 which has the station owners expecting an attack by wild aborigines and, fearful that the station aborigines might join in, mixing aspirins in their daily allowance of flour to hopefully put some of them to sleep instead.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (339395)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Nov 15
@boiboing I had a lot of pony books as a child written by English writers and the kids in that were always in awe of going to Lord or Lady's whatever for their gymkhana. The class system was alive and well in those books. There were a lot of returned Majors presenting trophies at Pony Clubs too. They mostly had a limp from an old war wound.
@JudyEv (339395)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Nov 15
@boiboing And now, since Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin, everyone thinks Australia is infested with crodociles. I've never seen on in real life. They're only in the north of the country but everyone seems to think they're everywhere.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (222744)
• Chile
29 Nov 15
I like book, not authors. And writers (and what they write) should be placed in their historical context. When Kipling wrote his books, there was a strong prejudice against natives. If you read with the eyes of today what England did to India and other eastern countries you might want to change your nationality. Such is History. Let us do what we can with the problems we have now and enjoy literature. I love Jane Eyre, but I think that had was a submissive sort of love for Mr. Rochester.
@AbbyGreenhill (45494)
• United States
29 Nov 15
I am still chuckling over the title! I've never thought about that.
@TypicalRussian (747)
• Budennovsk, Russian Federation
29 Nov 15
It would be interesting if Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were alive. I would definitely read their opinions to modern world and souls of modern people
@vickyblogs (341)
• India
29 Nov 15
I like both authors. Still I feel some of the old writers like Shakespeare, John Milton, Charles Dickens,and Francis Bacon are much interesting.
