posted
OSC, who are some of your favorite writers, and why? I used to think you were a big Stephen King fan based on your analysis of his work in one of your writing books, but lately you've been panning his books. Do you still like his work? (Just one example).
If you take the time to answer this, I would be very curious to see the answer given in two sections.
1) Who are your favorite *genre* (scifi, fantasy, horror) authors and why ....
2) Who are your favorite, eh, mainstream authors (I'll call this stuff like non-fiction, religious, mysteries, etc) and why ....
posted
I keep meaning to make up a whole massive list to answer this.
Meanwhile, though, what can I say? I barely read science fiction anymore (burned out on it after reviewing intensely for a decade or so).
Literary novelists, though - that's an easy list, because I like so few contemporaries. Richard Russo ("Nobody's Fool"), Anne Tyler ("Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant," "Back When We Were Grownups"), and Harry Crews ("A Feast of Snakes"). A few other more obscure ones - Tom Gavin, Francois Camoin - who never achieved bestsellerdom, but did beautiful work.
But when you ask for my favorite writers of "nonfiction" and "mysteries" and "sci fi" and "fantasy" - there's no way to answer intelligently without making a ten-thousand word essay out of it (just by commenting on each author!) and doing some serious memory jogging in my library.
So it ain't happening tonight.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
Hmmm, I like Francois Camoin. I have a signed copy of Benbow and Paradise, which has been out of print for so long, and is a very good book. His short stories, though, are the absolute best. Is the end of the world really Los Angeles?
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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I'd be curious to know what OSC thinks of Auster. That's a transdisciplinary regime comparison, but balls on a felt canvas will careen this way and that in similitude.
I ask, because, as a reader, when I met (read) Auster, I felt I was somehow "graduating" from the confines of OSC's imagination.
Posts: 551 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke. That's enough to make the world go round. (That is, except a minor physical stback which is the fact that their physical-gravitational effect upon Sol is rather limited.)
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Actually if you read his weekly column you can get a pretty good idea of which authors he reads and why, cuz he reviews a book every other week or so.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I think this is a fun question for a couple of reasons:
1. It's safe to say that Card knows his way around the SF arena.
2. He doesn't seem to have a lot to say about adult fiction in the literary genre despite his oft mentioned misgivings.
Posts: 551 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
He is a professor at the University of Utah who, at some point in maybe the late 70's, was on his way to becoming a literary giant. He sort of fizzled out, though, after the first couple of books. (He hasn't published much since). That was like 30 years ago, I guess.
I'm from Utah, and I got on a "local writer" kick at some point and read a bunch of Camoin, Stegner, Ron Carlson, uh, sci-fi people like Shayne Bell and Dalton Woodbury. Mostly odd sort of obscure people.
Camoin was by far the best. Yes, even better than Stegner. I said it. His short stories are so, so good.
I don't know much about him personally or why he would be bagging on Card, but he's pretty awesome.
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