Started By
Message
re: SECrOTB Book Club: I need a good book to read
Posted on 4/16/15 at 8:11 am to BluegrassBelle
Posted on 4/16/15 at 8:11 am to BluegrassBelle
quote:
It is pretentious to assume that just because a book is widely produced/consumed that it's not good.
That's true.
There are definitely lots of widely produced books that are very good. Most classics, new and old, are widely produced.
I think commercial, pop-mainstream refers a certain type of book maybe more than it's level of production, which I know might seem contradicting.
Maybe level of marketing might be a better gauge.
The Grisham's, Clancy's, King's, Crichton's and the abundant many that use their playbook.
When you're trying to gratify a mass market, when that is the intention it's very difficult for the art to be intellectually nourishing, even if the aim is to just entertain.
Note: Entertainment can end up gratifying the masses without the intention to do so, without going through a corporate filter. Not to say that the indie artist isn't hoping to be widely liked, it's more about nonexistent parameters that help make something mass appealing.
This post was edited on 4/16/15 at 8:24 am
2
Posted on 4/16/15 at 9:15 am to hipgnosis
I think it comes with getting paid to put out x number of pages and the pressure for those popular writers to keep cranking it out. I love kings early work though and the dark tower series which I feel he put more effort in to than other recent stuff.
Nothing wrong though with enjoying a "burner" as someone put it.
Same with Clancy IMO and likely most of them though I'm not familiar with Chrichton and Grisham belyond A Time To Kill.
I feel like that plays into it with both those sort of authors and the long series, they have probably had the first five books or so in their heads forever tossing around ideas and reworking the story so it's much harder to produce the same level if work once you run out of your initial ideas. Similar things could be said about some musicians
Nothing wrong though with enjoying a "burner" as someone put it.
Same with Clancy IMO and likely most of them though I'm not familiar with Chrichton and Grisham belyond A Time To Kill.
I feel like that plays into it with both those sort of authors and the long series, they have probably had the first five books or so in their heads forever tossing around ideas and reworking the story so it's much harder to produce the same level if work once you run out of your initial ideas. Similar things could be said about some musicians
This post was edited on 4/16/15 at 9:21 am
Posted on 4/16/15 at 9:23 am to hipgnosis
quote:
I think commercial, pop-mainstream refers a certain type of book maybe more than it's level of production, which I know might seem contradicting.
Maybe level of marketing might be a better gauge.
The Grisham's, Clancy's, King's, Crichton's and the abundant many that use their playbook.
When you're trying to gratify a mass market, when that is the intention it's very difficult for the art to be intellectually nourishing, even if the aim is to just entertain.
Note: Entertainment can end up gratifying the masses without the intention to do so, without going through a corporate filter. Not to say that the indie artist isn't hoping to be widely liked, it's more about nonexistent parameters that help make something mass appealing.
This sounds like a lot of hipster bullshite.
Parameters which make a book appealing:
Good plot
Good dialogue
Interesting concept
Editing
Most of the 'indie' books I have read are good at the concept portion, but really, really, really (cannot say this enough) suffer from lack of professional editing. Most of them also suffer from poor or repetitive dialogue, which is also usually fixed by good editing.
You see this in older 'classics' that were written before major publishing companies became a thing. Robinson Crusoe is a great example of this. That book would be a $.99 on amazon if it was written today.
Back in the day, Asimov, Heinlein, Wilde, etc had great concepts and good editing/plot/dialogue, which is why they have stood the test of time.
However, there is nothing wrong with Grisham, Clancy, King, or Crichton. They are good authors and their books are well done for the most part. Better than 95% of the drivel out there.
Page 1 of 1
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News