Age of Favourite Authors

[rune]

I noticed recently that non of my favourite authors apart from Tolkien was born before 1940.

I have noticed if I try and older authors book their style seems very old fashioned and formal, which I don't tend to like.

Has anyone else noticed how old their favourite authors are

 

[dwndrgn]

I've never paid a bit of attention to the age of the author other than the Eragon book that I just read because the author's young age was such an issue. What I have noticed is that most of the contemporary authors today that I enjoy reading are women. No idea what that signifies but there you go.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

The fallout from the 1960's. Most female authors are utter crap, and they seem to be writing at a much more prolific rate too. Some of my favourite authors are women but they are few and far between. There have always been great writers, but it is much easier to publish work these days than it was fifty years ago, consequently there are more authors and more readers around today.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Most female authors are utter crap, and they seem to be writing at a much more prolific rate too.

And most male authors are extremely talented and don't overproduce? Please, that is such a blatantly sexist statement to make! Let's just say that the percentage of really good authors of any gender is low, and that the output of many lesser talents is clearly the product of the old potboiling game.

As for age, no, rune, my favourite authors tend to have been born at various points of time - George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, they were all born in the earlier half of the last century, as were HP Lovecraft, Cordwainer Smith, Jack Vance and many many more. I also like writers like Poe or Doyle who weren't even born in our century, and one of my favourite poets, John Donne, belonged to the 16th century.

I read a lot of the 'classics' as a young boy, and I suppose that has made it easier for me wade through the differing prose norms of different eras to get at that story kernel.

 

[rune]

I seem to enjoy the more modern style of writing, it seems to fit in better with modern living and I also feel younger authors deal with issues that perhaps were more taboo years ago

 

[Lacedaemonian]

True. I just find the garbage that clutters the bestsellers shelves to be filled with holiday romance type crap. There is not a male equivelent to Catherine Cookson either...... I suppose this opens up another debate on whether the gender of the author effects the style/content of a novel to your taste or distaste. Probably a 'no go' that one.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Oh, surely not a 'no go', but I doubt it's the sort of topic than can really be brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

 

[littlemissattitude]

I don't really think I pay much attention to the age of the authors of the books I read. I don't have any way of knowing in many cases, unless I go out of my way to find out. I don't go by author's photos on book jackets - I'm notoriously horrible at judging age by looks. I guess it really doesn't make that much difference to me.

And as far as who produces more crap, male or female authors, I don't think gender has a thing to do with it. And, Lacedameonian, I wouldn't be too surprised if some of those romance novels that claim female authors were really written by men. Maybe not a huge percentage, but it would surprise me if there weren't any at all.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Men creeping around in guise of frocks and blouses.... The pendulum has swungeth. Was it not women who once wrote under male pseudonyms to get published? It says someting when they do not want to associate themselves, nor their gender with their works.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Men creeping around in guise of frocks and blouses.... The pendulum has swungeth. Was it not women who once wrote under male pseudonyms to get published? It says someting when they do not want to associate themselves, nor their gender with their works.

Women wrote under male pseudonyms when it was just Not Done to publish women. In the case of romance novels, I think what men writing under female pseudonyms says is that the advertising and marketing execs have gotten into the picture. I'm sure that the conventional wisdom is that women who read romance novels aren't interested in a male point of view when it comes to romance. These novels are seen, I think, as female fantasies by women for women.

I have no idea how much truth there is to that. I'd be interested in hearing from the women on the board who do read romance novels on a regular basis - would you pick up a romance novel with a male author's name on the cover? I'm not one to judge - I rarely read them. Not that I have anything against the idea; I just got disillusioned a long time ago by the formulaic nature of many of them.

Now, I do know that there at least a few romance novels out there with male names on them (although they probably didn't write them themselves). For example, there was at least one ghostwritten romance novel that came out under Fabio's name. Don't know how that went over.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

A truly bankrupt genre surely. I got into trouble for saying that SF was crap on my first post on these boards. I have not learned a single thing. But surely Romance is a genre devoid of any qualities. Does romance not feature in a multitude of genres? Does it serve as a leading theme? Men writing romance, it is bad enough that anybody writes the stuff. Selling their sweaty palms to the devil!

 

[littlemissattitude]

Actually, there are some good romance novels. I haven't actually come across one in a while, but I read a few years ago that I quite liked. I just don't like the ones in which the main female character starts out as a strong, self-reliant woman, meets a man who is emotionally unavailable but attractive in a brooding sort of way, and then proceeds to completely lose any brain she might have possessed.

 

[Lacedaemonian]

Name a good romance novel. In fact name several. We're talking about a novel where the plot is a romance, not a romance within a plot..... I am all ears...

 

[polymorphikos]

I liked "The Summer of the Spanish Woman", by Catherine Gaskin. There, I said it, and now I must crawl under a rock and spend the rest of my days in exile from the human race.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Does Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca count?


I can't really comment on this though, as I have never been attracted to the romance genre. It seems a harmless enough mode of wish-fulfillment, that's the best I can say.

Poly, thanks for dropping in but find yer own rock.