I couldn’t help but laugh at this line from Steven Erikson’s recent interview on Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist:
So, it’s impossible, I think, to be stunned by one’s own written scene. Pleased, sure. Satisfied, hopefully. Awed wonder – time to get skeptical, or change my initials to TG.
With the 2011 Cage Matches just winding down over at Suvudu, I have to wonder if the 2012 Cage Matches shouldn’t eschew the characters completely and just pit speculative fiction writers against one another wholesale.
What do you think about one professional writer taking a dig at another professional writer in such a manner?
I think this was actually pretty funny! Certain authors are too full of themselves, I enjoy the down-to-earth sort that know how to poke fun and also know how to take it.
Two Thoughts:
1. Goodkind won’t ever read that. He doesn’t entertain the comments of mere mortals like genre authors. How long until he drops the second O from his name?
2. I’m all for it. The same goes for GRRM calling out the writers for Lost. It’s one thing to do something poorly. It’s quite another to do something poorly and pretend it’s never been done better. Arrogance demands criticism.
seems like most folks feel justified taking swipes at TG. I’ve never read him, so I can’t validate their arguments, but hell, even Brandon Sanderson has done it in tweets.
personally i don’t think I would do it if I were a professional author… earning ire from colleagues isn’t really my style. but if someone feels a certain way, it’s certainly their right to be honest… and a lot of what we respect about certain public figures is the existence of their outspoken opinions. Do as thou wilt, as they say, or in other words: be true to yourself.
Priceless.
Wish there was more of this, actually, rather than all the goshdarned respect one professional writer seem obliged to have for every other.
Remember when Stephen King had a go about Stephanie Meyer? Good times!
Don’t mind authors calling out each other at all. It has always happened and will continue to happen. I say, let them have their fun.
As for Suvudu… a fine enough idea, but it will still be a popularity contest. Do dead authors count? I might enjoy a ZomieJordan v. Sanderson bout.
I think it was tastefully delivered, if not entirely objective.
With the comments Goodkind has made about fantasy and fantasy fans, I think anything short of wishing he dies a horrible painful death is fair game.
Like I said on twitter, Goodkind is kind of a special case in that he sort of walked in front of fantasy fans, readers and writers with a middle finger proudly extended. That’s fine. That’s what he wanted to do. But it kind of opens one up for this sort of thing.
And, as far as I know, he’s pretty much the only case. I’ve never heard of one author taking potshots at another author that wasn’t him. It tends to be a pretty chummy community, I find. At least, every author I’ve met has been really supportive and friendly…maybe that’s just pity on their part.
I’ve taken a few potshots at Goodkind, too, since it’s become sort of a staple of the community to do so, but I can’t say I feel all that good about it. This being the internet, it’s really easy for something you said, no matter how insignificant you thought it might be, to be held up as an example of how to define you for the next century. This might not be Goodkind’s case, I truly don’t know, but it does make me stop and think before I say something.
Well said on both counts.
That was so awesome!
[…] question comes from A Dribble of Ink, where Aidan is talking about Steven Erikson’s recent swipe at fantasy’s current-reigning whipping boy, Terry Goodkind. There is some good discussion […]
I have no problem with honesty, providing any comments are said respectfully.
I’m pretty sure Erikson took the mickey out of Goodkind in REAPER’S GALE as well, when Tehol starts screaming that the chickens are evil and out to get him.
Ah, I remember that scene. As for the comment, in general, I disagree if the comments are regarding their writing style or any subjective merit of their work, but somebody who has so consistently insulted – as Sam Sykes said – essentially every writer and reader in the genre might just deserve it. So in this case…
Bakker’s “The second monkey I’d call Terry, and I’d forbid him from making things up about philosophers he’s never read, and I’d try not to look at him, for fear he might be masturbating” (on what he’d do if he raised three monkeys) is my all time favorite Goodkind dig.