posted
To anyone interested, WCP, has an interview with Laura and Tracy Hickman this month. Very enlightening and interesting. It was for me anyway. http://www.wildchildpublishing.com
posted
Some excellent advice! Thanks for the link, Shawn.
quote:I personally love red ink and I think that any writer who is not respectful of editorial critique is doomed. They are doomed to their own mediocrity because without the constructive critique, they will never grow.
posted
I also found the Hickmans to be great people and they had great advice--very great. The interview was a live IM chat, which was fun and I got to ask questions that came from answers to the last questions.
We hope to do more live IM interviews, I have one with James D. MacDonald coming up (live IM) and I am hoping Kathleen will do hers that way as well. Saddly, OSC didn't--we were not doing them that way when I sent my questions to him.
posted
OSC has been the subject of some truly inflammatory rhetoric (to put it mildly), and I can imagine that he would want to be careful about what is printed regarding him.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
|
posted
Can you be more specific about that, Kathleen? Is this something recent, or has it gone on throughout his writing career?
Posts: 814 | Registered: Nov 2000
|
posted
It's been throughout his career, in one form or another.
There are science fiction writers who have had a problem with his success and his philosophies. There have been reviewers who have interpreted his work in totally off-the-wall ways. There have been members of his church who have anonymously reported him to church leaders for writing science fiction or for the way he has written it.
<shrug> I'd prefer to be careful under such circumstances.
I guess I always wondered what people would make of him for his views and stories. "Saints" certainly pushed the envelope, and did "Stone Tables". I myself am a member of that same faith and would be apalled that someone would try to cause trouble for him because of some story or comment of his. Just shows that intollerance can be found anywhere.
I mean, the worst offense I can imagine he's committed is to vote Democrat!!
Sorry.
Anyway, I read all his reviews and articles and stories and other comments and I feel I've gotten what I feel is a pretty decent picture of the man and I guess my take would be that jealousy overtakes some folks, for jealousy is the only thing that would explain it.
On a personal note, his author's note at the end of "Shadow Puppets" (maybe it was "Shadow of the Hegemon"...can't recall off hand) where he spoke about his kids was very touching. That alone elevates my regard for that man above many others.
There are some truly narrow minded people in the world, OSC is definitely not among them.
I mean...he has a religion he is faithful to, a family and strong sense of moral and ethical values, loves his kids dearly, excercises concern about our political climate (which DOES matter...if only every american were so concerned), provides what appears to me to be a great deal of civic support and entertainment, writes exceptionally well and does much to aid those of us who wish to do likewise, and stands firm in his convictions....
Mostly because he's devout in his religion. Look at Mel Gibson. No one cared an inkling about his Catholicism until he made The Passion of the Christ. Gibson let his religion into his art, and now all of a sudden he's a freak.
On the other side, artists are often shunned by closed-minded members of their religion who don't understand the first thing about art. In the Catholic world, authors such as Graham Greene and Flannery O'Connor have been ridiculed by "conservative" Catholics for betraying the faith. I'm sure OSC has suffered through the same thing.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited April 01, 2004).]
quote:I mean...he has a religion he is faithful to, a family and strong sense of moral and ethical values, loves his kids dearly, excercises concern about our political climate (which DOES matter...if only every american were so concerned), provides what appears to me to be a great deal of civic support and entertainment, writes exceptionally well and does much to aid those of us who wish to do likewise, and stands firm in his convictions....
Why do people not like him?
Exactly what planet do you live on, and can I get a ride there? If you had set out to compose a list of reasons that people will hate and envy someone, I don't think you could have gotten much different.
posted
Survivor -- I hope you are referring to envy and jealousy as opposed more concrete reasons to hate a person!
My trailing question in that post was not really one that required answering. It was simply meant to point out that qualities which should be praisworthy and virtuous and worthy of note often become the traits other people most hate about us.
posted
I agree w/ Survivor and w/ rj's response. OSC's got strong convictions, and isn't afraid to tell it like he sees it. My impression is he's a great guy. Some people just don't need much reason to hate.
I don't know if any of you hang out at Ornery.com, but it's a testament to his tolerance for opposing viewpoints that he keeps the site up. Almost everything he writes (especially if it's politically oriented) gets ripped to shreds over there. It's not often pretty.
Of course, I understand he doesn't read the forums there, either.
posted
It's more a testament to his failure to help uphold the standards of discourse on the site. I don't read Ornery myself anymore.
I don't believe that there are ever concrete reasons to hate a person. That's partly my Christian outlook talking, and partly...well, yeah, pretty much tracible to the Christian thing.
To hate, in a Christian sense, is essentially to desire that somebody become a worse person. There is simply no logical reason to desire such a thing.
If you define "hate" as merely loathing or despising something, then sure, it makes sense to hate all humans. It doesn't make sense to not hate any humans.
Of course, people tend to use the word both ways, with diametrically opposed consequences. In one sense of the word, it is evil to hate anyone, in the other, it is evil to not hate everyone.
I pick the Christian definition of the word because, frankly, it makes more sense to talk about how hate is bad that way. In the other sense of the word, hate is such a positive good that lacking in hate would have to be considered the most grevious sin.
posted
I know how he feels, I am a fantasy writer and member of the LDS faith. There is magic and God's and all sorts of creepy things in Fantasy. But Fantasy by nature is moral. It is the new generation of the old mythologies. My own mother speaks out against Harry Potter, even going as far as quoting the Onion. (which if you don't know is a fake newspaper. It's dang funny though.) Harry Potter is light fantasy. Alot of fantasy can get really deep. Tracy Hickman has a wonderful defence of Fantasy and Religion on his site. www.trhickman.com He's also a member of the church, thought I'd add that since this thread started out about him and his wife.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
|
Printer-friendly view of this topic
