Originally posted by clackers A great ideas guy, MK ... but that prose style is the opposite of what's usually taught as good writing these days (Hemingway et al). Amongst horror writers, Lovecraft had the same problem.
I'm actually not a Hemingway fan. I don't like much of anything of his except for his odd toed cats. I read a couple of his novels in school for assignments but they frankly bored me for all they are considered "classics" now. From what I've read of him I don't think I'd have liked him much either. Except for his love of cats the guy wasn't that nice of a person. He was more than a bit of a self centered jerk particularly in terms of how he treated the women in his life. He left them all pretty much and not nicely. I have his books in e-book format but I have yet to read the rest. The ones I did read they just did not inspire me to read any more, shrug.
I also abhor Lovecraft which is odd given I like quite a few of his contemporaries. Cthulhu and co just don't do it for me. I'm aware that Poe's prose is considered too fancy and too verbose these days but that was the style of the time and I don't hold that against him. He was basically writing Penny Dreadfuls after all, getting paid to write the most sensational and frightening stories he could. Most of his contemporaries doing the same thing didn't manage it half so well. I don't mind it and in so far as imagery and plot are concerned he has IMHO a lot of the so called "good" writers that are so much lauded these days totally beat. Poe is one of the few writers in the mystery-horror genre who's work genuinely unsettled me as a kid and that means far more to me than his use of some rather purple prose. I rather like authors who are not afraid to use words and many of them actually. Obviously given how I type I don't value minimalism in writing all that much. :P
My one creative writing teacher tried to get me to write like that. Five word sentences, minimal descriptions. Ugh. It took nearly all the fun out of writing for me. I grew up reading Poe, Tolkien, Irving, Hawthorne, Dickens, Shakespeare, Stoker, Shelly, Yarbo, Rice, McCullough among many others. Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Updike, I just don't relate to them much at all. When it comes to classic novels I'd much rather read an epic historical story with a lot of descriptors than something more modern and minimalist. Stories set in America from the 1920's onward, they just don't often appeal but when they do it's usually something pretty sleazy like Harold Robbins and Judith Krantz. I love both of them actually. Not because I think they write very well but because they do what they do so well, write kinky pulp novels. It rather amuses me.
I mean go read Princess Daisy or Goodbye Janette and you'll see what I mean. It's horrible writing, dreadful plotting, and yes, way too many words, but it's HILARIOUS to actually read one of their books, particularly the raunchy parts. As a kid I used to totally sneak their books because my Mom didn't want me reading what she called "trash" novels. (Never mind that she read far worse in her historical bodice rippers and though nothing of it.) But I loved them. They made me laugh they were so absurd. Still do. Once in a while I put some their books on the reader just because I want to take a break from reading anything more serious. They're not meant to be anything serious, just mind candy....
I have very odd taste in reading material I suppose. As a kid I managed to read everything from the best of the classics to the worst sleaze you can imagine. I still don't limit myself when it comes to reading. I relish reading the literary greats and I will sometimes read the tabloids. Reading the good stuff enriches my brain, the other appeals to my funny, nasty side. It's all good and I'm not ashamed at all to admit I read it either...