Which author do you respect the most and why? I will weigh in later. for now I am just interested in what other members have to say.
Suzanne Collins - love the themes in her books, and the fact that her characters are survivor types (especially the Hunger Games series) Alice Sebold - very good writer, knows how to convey emotion with rhetorical devices and the actual way she writes, which is hard to do right, and she can Bentley Little - I've only read a couple of his books, but they're good. He writes horror, and I actually feel creeped out more often than not when reading his stuff (esp "The Return"), compared to other horror writers who have very few actually scary parts Phyllis Reynolds Naylor - writes YA/kids' books and was my favorite author when I was younger. This lady has written everything under the sun, and her books are fast-paced with fun plots that are interesting to read. Even though she's old, she gets details like dialogue right, and can relate to young people really well. There's more than that, but those are the ones that jump out the most at the moment.
Slightly off-tooic (sorry...) :redface) but I am on a norwegian forum more or less daily and heard about The Hunger Games there two days ago. I haven't read them yet, but I was planning to. Back on topic, I have a few favorite authors: * Jane Jensen: While she hasn't written many books, she was a vital part of Sierra's long line of excellent adventure games for PC. And who doesn't know Gabriel Knight? I just love her writing. It's very stylish and to the point, without being cheesy. * H.P. Lovecraft definitely deserves a mention. Even South Park had two episodes with a certain Cthulhu, which shows how influental he is. Not bad for a crazy guy who died more than 70 years ago in young age. * Stephen King, of course. I admit he has written a lot of junk the last two decades, but I refuse to give up on him. One day he'll get back in shape, and we'll all be terrified again. He's called King for a reason.
Tough question, because you admire different authors for different reason. For longevity, you have to admire those who wrote classics like Moby Dick. In the fantasy realm, I second what WriterDude said about H.P. Lovecraft and I'll add Robert E. Howard and J.R.R. Tolkien. These guys have comics, games, movies, and more books all still using their material today, and they're popular (more popular than when the authors were alive). For sheer brilliance of the written word, Mervyn Peake. Vladimir Nabokov as well, and when you figure in that English wasn't his first language the feat is ever more impressive. For consistently writing books that you want to read in a single sitting without ever putting them down, Michael Connelly and Robert Crais. For creating books that have become a worldwide cultural phenomenon, J.K. Rowling.
H.P. Lovecraft is certainly deserving of respect for his longevity at least. Say what you will about his concepts, his purple writing, and his use of the same basic story over and over and over again. It's been nearly 100 years since his death and he is only increasing in popularity. Thomas Pynchon is perhaps by favorite writer. How he builds his world, how he adds humor, mystery, and different layers into those worlds; and how brilliant his writing is is something we all should take notes from. Daniel Defoe is a writer I'm beginning to love. I respect him. John Milton. Even if it's just for Paradise Lost.
Damn, I forgot about Robert E. Howard. :redface: This guy was a genius. I'm sure everyone knows Conan the Barbarian by now, but Howard wrote a lot more than that. King Kull and Solomon Kane are two others I like a lot. I remember a short story with Solomon Kane I read where he found a girl beaten and killed (and possibly raped). Solomon Kane didn't know her, but he spent a lot of time tracking down the people who did it and killed them all, just so the girl could get her revenge. You don't see that often these days.
Heard there might be another Solomon Kane film in the works. Never saw the one from 2009. Anyone see it? New Conan movie coming soon.
I find much of his newer stuff is still creepy. The problem people are having with his newer novels are that his newer stuff tends to be in a genre he does just as well; apocolyptic fiction. The biggest problem is that the general public still wants to see him doing horror. He is a fabulous writer every which way. He has always had a habit of writing himself into a corner though. I respect him for becoming well known enough to publish whatever he wants now. I respect Nora Roberts for paying the bills with her "sappy romances" but finding a way to make them have interesting and likable characters and amazing plots. I respect Danielle Steels for writing when everyone else told her she shouldn't. I respect Harper Lee because I seriously think htat her only piece was the greatest book of all time. I also respect that she spent so much of her life supporting another writer; Truman Capote. I respect Truman Capote for crawling inside the heads of his real life characters and bringing them to life despite the madness it brought to his own mind. I love L. M. montgomery because she wrote amazing books and had the nerve to write about her own life. He characters are vibrant and real as a result. She is the author I would love to be like. My point in writing this trhead was to point out that there is much we can learn from the other published authors. It is so interesting to learn thier stories.
Huh, I've been waiting forever for the Solomon Kane-movie, and hadn't heard anywhere that it was out already. How could I possibly miss it? Not that it matters. I just ordered it on blue-ray before writing this. As for Conan... you can't make a Conan-movie without Arnold anymore than you can make Rambo without Stallone. 'nough said. Yeah, he's still a great writer. But his later stuff is really bad compared to the old stuff. Cell was creepy, but Cujo and Pet Semetary were geniunly scary stuff. There's a difference.
This is very easy for me. Samuel Johnson. I revere him. He was almost a great a person as he is a writer. Won't go on. Will make you feel sick if I do.
I kind of felt like Arnold was a little too much of a body-builder physique. Conan is damn strong, but I always envisioned him more lean and athletic as well. Hopefully the new movie won't suck.
So the person who doesn't like Arnold as Conan do exist? I thought that was a myth? Btw ever seen the Conan tv-series? No? My point exactly.
I liked Arnold well enough, but I'm open to them using another actor because Arnold was never how I pictured Conan I didn't even know there WAS a tv series.
I looked up the series on Wikipedia. Here is part of what it says: "In this live-action adaptation, Conan is a kind, sympathetic and jovial person, rather than a moody loner looking out for himself, and is a contented member of a merry band of adventurers with a humanitarian quest. " No wonder it failed. It's not even Conan. Sheesh.
And this: "On the spiritual level, Conan's Cimmerian deity Crom in this version is not a remote, unseen god as in previous storylines, but an accessible deity who at times provides Conan direct divine assistance, and Conan is outright devout in his worship of Crom (while in previous incarnations, Conan has little faith in gods, and believes that Crom simply observes as men struggle)." WTF. I hope someone took the series creator and strung him up by his testicles.
J.K Rowling - Made me fall in love with books in deeper levels than I thought possible. Harper Lee - Her capturerance of a young voice, an important voice, an innocent voice, a first-person voice, a rose-colored voice, a guilty voice, a southern voice, a remembered voice. Langston Hughes - I absolutely adore, adore, adore his poetry and short-story collections. John Steinbeck - My absolute favorite depression-era novelist. Also adore, his southern style voice. Vladamir Nabokov - damn him, he got me at first sight! Bret Easton Ellis - I think I fell in love with him when I read the first page of "Rules of Attraction." It's seriously one of my absolute favorite first pages of all time that I've torn in out of a book and keep it where I can keep reading it over and over again. He broke the rules the right way. And lastly, Frank McCourt - The man that inspired me to write and take it seriously.
This thread isn't about favorite authors; it's about authors we respect. I think I respect James Joyce the most, because he treated writing as high art and didn't care about making money from it - in fact, until he got patronage from an anonymous admirer, his financial circumstances were excruciating. And he was going blind. And yet still he wrote, and his work became more and more difficult and uncommercial as he went on. But he wrote masterpieces. He stretched the bounds of narrative prose as far as they'd go, and wrote masterpieces. And he pretty much sacrificed his life in order to do so. To me, THAT deserves respect.
Margaret Atwood. "Oryx and Crake." "The Handmaid's Tale." "Lady Oracle." One of the best. Cormac McCarthy. "Blood Meridian" scared me to death and deepened my appreciation for a flawless, no-nonsense style of writing. Alan Watts and Loren Eisley, two of the most poetic and erudite academics ever. Octavio Paz. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Rainer Maria Rilke.
Brian Jacques has got to be my all time most respected. Reading his books as a boy, I really learned a lot about how to describe something graphically. He wrote his books to read them to blind children so they are so vividly described, it's excellent. Plus his characters are so entertaining, such as the hares and most of the villains.
JK Rowling. My childhood and life writing heroine. She's ridiculously clever too, with the way she weaves her stories and characters so they jump out at you. Love her. Stephen King. When he gets it right, scariest stories I've ever read, and good too. JRR Tolkien. God, I'd love to pick his brain an see how he created such a wide and brilliant world. Same with Rowling. Charlotte and Emily Bronte. That's how you write a brilliant romance novel. Robert Penn Warren. Adore his writing and how he phrases things.... All the King's Men is an addiction for me.
