God Make Me Stop!

[ChloeTzang]

I'm still tossing books from my Kindle. For now its any book with what's called MAGIC NEGROES. They were the rage in the 90s. The effort is fashion. Main Stran Media has flings with everything. Recall THE MODE SQUAD on tv? Queers are the current rage. Midget blacks had a turn, as did retards like Corky.

So anything with a mascot in it is bye bye.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Magical_Negro_occurrences_in_fiction

Well, it doesn't sound like you should stop at all. Keep going.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Well, it doesn't sound like you should stop at all. Keep going.

I suspect PC editors force writers to lard books with such action mascots, to appease our cultural chaperones. Michael Connelly began life with a detective whose partner was a black cop named Edgar. Edgar was a n OK cop but obsessed with his off duty real estate gig. Then Connelly added a rookie black girl who came to earth from Valhalla. Her farts smelled like roses. Connelly hadda get rid of her because you cant do squat with perfection. Characters must have flaws and zits. And perfect characters spoil the art.

 

[NicoleZ]

Characters must have flaws and zits. And perfect characters spoil the art.

I'd say that this is a truism, but contrast it with this one: Superman and other fictional heroes owe their success to being physically and/or morally flawless, an idealised image that the reader likes to identify with.

Realism versus idealism, erudition versus escapism. It's easy to identify what Literotica is all about, is it not?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I'd say that this is a truism, but contrast it with this one: Superman and other fictional heroes owe their success to being physically and/or morally flawless, an idealised image that the reader likes to identify with.

Realism versus idealism, erudition versus escapism. It's easy to identify what Literotica is all about, is it not?

Kryptonite Kills!

•5) Martian Manhunter – Fire.
•4) The Human Torch – Asbestos.
•3) Wolverine – The Muramasa Blade.
•2) Green Lantern – Yellow/Wood.
•1) Wonder Woman – Rendered Helpless by a Man Binding Her Bracelets Together.
•5) Luke Cage – Adamantium.
•4) The Flash – Running Too Fast.
•3) Daredevil – Noise Pollution.
2) Buttbrain- Pilette
1) Assclown- Tax Rat breath

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Deleted several books today then added 3 James M.Cain novels.

I notice most writers are depleted by novel #7, a few don't make it that far. So I limit my collections to the early efforts.

 

[ishtat]

Deleted several books today then added 3 James M.Cain novels.

I notice most writers are depleted by novel #7, a few don't make it that far. So I limit my collections to the early efforts.

Does that mean James, that Jane Austen with just six is your ideal?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Does that mean James, that Jane Austen with just six is your ideal?

Plenty don't rate one. Dickens rates 2 (David Copperfield and Great Expectations)

 

[CarlusMagnus]

I see that in some guidelines I wss reading for Hot Romances. Sex in the first chapter is spelled out as a requirement. No first chapter sex, no pass. I guess they know their readers

Depends on what you mean by "first chapter sex". If it means they gotta get naked and put This into That, I disagree. If it means that they have to be thinking about putting This into That, and that, by the end of the first few hundred words, the reader has to be wondering, probably obsessively, about when, where, and how that's gonna happen…

Well, that's a different story.

 

[rjordan]

Depends on what you mean by "first chapter sex". If it means they gotta get naked and put This into That, I disagree. If it means that they have to be thinking about putting This into That, and that, by the end of the first few hundred words, the reader has to be wondering, probably obsessively, about when, where, and how that's gonna happen…

Well, that's a different story.

And potentially a much more interesting one.

rj

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Deleted more Kindle books tonight. I don't do long tortoise openings where nothing much happens for a whole chapter. I don't do pointless filler.

I tossed close to forty books, time to make a wish list for 2017.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I cant believe I'm gonna delete a Parker thriller by Donald Westlake. But after 4 chapters nuthin much has happened. The Parker character is wandering around a closed amusement park in the dead of winter with his head up his ass. And this is llike the 12th Parker novel. Incredible.

 

[darrowhk]

Good writing is good writing. Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, and Hugo are PILOTs equal on every occasion, though Tolstoy's brilliance relies on the competence of the Brit translator (and few are able). The authors noted above do not "sidetrack" their stories with inane rambling picnics. Their stories move like music and lively streams. They do not stop to contemplate the price of tea in China.

You do realize that a good third of War and Peace is Tolstoy rambling about his views on history, right?

 

[SamScribble]

You do realize that a good third of War and Peace is Tolstoy rambling about his views on history, right?

There’s a bit of a difference between a ‘literary’ novel, a pot boiler, and a good short story.

A literary novel is mainly about character. The story – such as it is – takes place mainly inside the head of a character or the heads of several characters.

A good short story is a tale of something that happened – or didn’t happen. (There’s a trick that takes a bit of pulling off.) If you stretch a short story, it becomes a saga or a soap, not a novel.

If you would aspire to write a pot boiler, take the advice of the late Elmore Leonard: Leave out the parts that readers skip.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

There’s a bit of a difference between a ‘literary’ novel, a pot boiler, and a good short story.

A literary novel is mainly about character. The story – such as it is – takes place mainly inside the head of a character or the heads of several characters.

A good short story is a tale of something that happened – or didn’t happen. (There’s a trick that takes a bit of pulling off.) If you stretch a short story, it becomes a saga or a soap, not a novel.

If you would aspire to write a pot boiler, take the advice of the late Elmore Leonard: Leave out the parts that readers skip.

I accept all your points and agree. Tolstoy created wonderful characterizations for plenty of human interactions, and his philosophizing is grand. Ditto Dickens and Twain. I get it.

And boring is boring. I know when the writer is focused on word count rather than story. Robert Bloch knew how to write a great shower scene (PSYCHO) but your common shit shower and shave isn't Norman Bates with a big knife. I call such schemes A SLOW NEWS DAY for the writer.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I bought most of Michael Connellys book and just deleted anything newer than 1999 when political correctness bit Connelly, and the plots became turgid yet limp. It supports my thesis that writers suck after six or so popular books are in the bag. Raymond Chandler got netter with time, but I cant name another writer who did the same. Maybe Hemingway. THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA was his best.

I also got rid of every James Ellroy book after THE BLACK DAHLIA.

 

[NicoleZ]

It supports my thesis that writers suck after six or so popular books are in the bag. Raymond Chandler got netter with time, but I cant name another writer who did the same.

I am sorry to disappoint you, but your thesis is incorrect as there are several writer who improved and continued to improve long after that. Would you say that Around the World in Eighty Days (11th) or The Mighty Orinoco (45th) are worse than The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (2nd) or In Search of the Castaways (5th)?

From Verne let's move on to Agatha Christie. Are The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) or Murder on the Links (1923) better than Endless Night (1967) or Nemesis (1971)?

Take Heinlein! Glory Road and Stranger in a Strange Land are considered to be landmark novels of SF, but they are infinitely poorer than I Shall Fear No Evil or Time Enough for Love, from every angle you look at them.

Steven King - Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, Pet Semetary, The Green Mile and Bag of Bones are all later than his sixth novel. Are they not as good or better than Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Shining - not to mention nos 4 - 6; Rage, The Stand and The Long Walk.

Alas! I think you will have go back to the drawing board here, read some more literature and do some more research before you formulate a different hypothesis. This one has been well and truly falsified.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

More books are gone. I count 50-60 tossed since I created this thread. If the tale isn't entertaining its gone. No more rolling the dice with unknown authors or tales I'm unfamiliar with. And no author is immune from the axe. I take notes of what does and doesn't work. I find that the self correcting authors and I think alike. Their characters I hate go away with time.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

The toll is now 45 books deleted from Kindle.

KILL YOUR DARLINGS.

I paid good money for all those books.

But I'm now heartl3ess when it comes to crappy writing. Any book that starts (from an old Beatles song) WPKE, JUMPED OUTTA BED, DRAGGED A COMB ACROSS MY HEAD, FOUND MY WAY DOWN STAIRS AND HADDA CUP, LOOKING UP I NOTICED I WAS LATE, GR4ABBED MY COAT AND GRABBED MY HAT, MADE THE BUS IN SECONDS FLAT......ETC.

No SHIT SHOWER AND SHAVE openings.

No lame digressions in the midst of action-thrillers as if its a hurricane with a placid tranquil center in the middle of hell. Or a Marlin Perkins WILD KINGDOM episode where Marlin sticks his nose up a flowers ass while Jim wrestles with a crocodile.


While Marlin talks about Mutual iof ObamaCare, Jim fights the snake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vT3GOc9Zgo

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I tossed 5 by Michael Connelly (he was great till he fell in love with PC).

Then I got rid of all my Jim Thompson novels except for THE GRIFTERS. Famous and boring most of the time.

All replaced by Pete Dexter novels. Dexter published several violent novels. I mean over the top stuff. He was a Philadelphia reporter, and plenty of his crime stories are in his novels. Raw and graphic. Blacks are animnals. White trash are scum. Gays are hurt hard by the cops. Women are victims. And liberals are fools.

As a rule I believe authors fail after their 6th book. Stephen King did, they all did, except for Raymond Chandler. His last book is better than his first. He, alone, got better with time. Stephen King confessed he lost his talent and cant find it.

 

[NicoleZ]

As a rule I believe authors fail after their 6th book. Stephen King did, they all did, except for Raymond Chandler. His last book is better than his first. He, alone, got better with time. Stephen King confessed he lost his talent and cant find it.

Hogwash!

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Hogwash!

Names please.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

No names of authors who got better. Okay.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Lemme help Nicole out.

I found a few authors with more than a few good books, but I cant name one who got better over time.

Elmore Leonard (in my opinion he deteriorated after 1972).

John LeCarre, deteriorated after George Smiley ended.

Lawrence Block wrote well for a long time but not well in a while.

 

[NicoleZ]

Lemme help Nicole out.

I found a few authors with more than a few good books, but I cant name one who got better over time.

If you want a serious debate, you have to stick to the rules and not change them as you go along. This is what you said earlier:

As a rule I believe authors fail after their 6th book. Stephen King did, they all did

There is a WORLD of difference between saying "authors fail after their 6th book" and "I cant name one who got better over time"

Now, you challenge me to name some:

Names please.

I have already done so!

I am sorry to disappoint you, but your thesis is incorrect as there are several writer who improved and continued to improve long after that. Would you say that Around the World in Eighty Days (11th) or The Mighty Orinoco (45th) are worse than The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (2nd) or In Search of the Castaways (5th)?

From Verne let's move on to Agatha Christie. Are The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) or Murder on the Links (1923) better than Endless Night (1967) or Nemesis (1971)?

Take Heinlein! Glory Road and Stranger in a Strange Land are considered to be landmark novels of SF, but they are infinitely poorer than I Shall Fear No Evil or Time Enough for Love, from every angle you look at them.

Steven King - Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, Pet Semetary, The Green Mile and Bag of Bones are all later than his sixth novel. Are they not as good or better than Carrie, Salem's Lot and The Shining - not to mention nos 4 - 6; Rage, The Stand and The Long Walk.

Alas! I think you will have go back to the drawing board here, read some more literature and do some more research before you formulate a different hypothesis. This one has been well and truly falsified.

You completely ignored this previously and now you pretend I never posted it. Explain yourself please and furthermore, I think an apology would not be out of place.

 

[NicoleZ]

And if you crave more examples:

Mark Twain

Rudyard Kipling

P.G. Wodehouse

Margery Allingham

Isaac Asimov

Artur C Clarke

Anne McCaffrey

Shall I go on? Alright, here are a few more off the top of my head: C.S. Forester, C. Northcote-Parkinson, Patrick O'Brian, Julian May, Marion Zimmer-Bradley.