Attached Link: Who Flips Your Monkey

In elementary school, I adored Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft and Jules Verne (no, I did not go to elementary school with any of these gentleman).

Can you imagine that my favorite two authors in high school were Agatha Christie and Sax Rohmer? I tell no lies.

In college I went to Ray Bradbury, William Shakespeare, Shirley Jackson, Rod Serling, Isak Dinesen, and Charles Dickens.

As a young adult I liked Ruth Rendell and Patricia Highsmith.

What is very odd is that I have no favorites now (unless you consider I still have a fondness for my past favorites), and haven't had any new candidates for the last few years, though I do have favorite individual books (such as "Stellaluna" by Janell Cannon and "The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers," by Christopher Vogler).

I don't know if that is really odd or I just somehow think it may be.

Lost me at Rohmer, Dinesen, Rendel, and Highsmith. Lovecraft's "House on the Borderland", I believe, is the first book that I had ever read of that genre and catapaulted me into science fiction, as it turns out. Though Shakespeare is "forced" upon HS students, I don't think anyone can ever have an appreciation of him till in their twenties. And if one can't "read" it the way it must be done, then it helps to have it done for you by fine actors. BTW, how could you read Bradbury and not Heinlein? (smile)

I beat Chuck at something! I recognize Ruth Rendell! I'm clueless over the other three, but I got one! ;-) I read Agatha Christie all through elementary school. My mother owned every book Christie ever wrote. In 4th grade, I had to draw a cover for my favorite book, and you know what, they just don't appreciate kids trying to draw covers for murder mysteries. (I can just imagine what would happen if a kid tried that these days! Ritalin and therapy for life.) I believe the book was "A Murder is Announced" though I think the American title was different. I remember one of the clues in the book was, "Georgie Porgie kissed the girl hiker and made her cry." Bradbury was more homey (the stories made me feel like I was curled up with my favorite quilt in my room), but I liked Heinlein better - to me, he had a wider range of ideas. It seems to me like many of my favorite authors have gone downhill over the years. A lot of them seem to get into a rut, or develop an easy but artificial cadence with their writing after a while. (I have a big list of authors who have disappointed me after they became famous and started cranking out books.) My current favorite for plain ole fun, cheesy reading is Janet Evanovich with her Stephanie Plum mystery series. There's no pretentions that this is anything other than a fun way to spend an afternoon. I've gone through 7 books so far and they're still fresh. I think that as we read more books, and expand our repetoir, we stop having favorite authors because no author can have every book come out perfectly. After a while, we see the faults as well as the high points of each author, and focus instead on the individual books. And I guess we can forgive you for getting into Monkey Flipping late in life. ;-)

Hey, at least we got through the thread without the "expected comments"! Perhaps the reader develops as s/he reads more and more. Perhaps the reader (hate it when words stack like that!) "assimilates" all the favorite authors into some sort of homogenious (sp?) collage that, NOW, no one author can live up to. Just a thought But what do I know? BTW, I can just picture the beaming smile on your face as you handed in your pride and joy drawing and got the first glimpse of the teacher's frown. Had to laugh out loud and then share it with wifey...hehe.

Let's just say I didn't fit in well at school.

If you don't know Sax Rohmer, you may know Fu Manchu. I know now it is the most politically incorrect series of books ever. It was sexist, racist, and pulp fiction at its worst. And I loved every darn one of the series. I don't know why. They couldn't have been worst for an impressionable female. If you don't know Isak Dinesen, think Meryl Streep in "Out of Africa" and then go to your library and check out her short stories. You'll be surprised. If you don't know Patricia Highsmith, think "Strangers on a Train" (Hitchcock version) and "The Amazing Mr. Riply." You see, you know them but you didn't know you knew them. Ruth Rendell is a suspense/mystery author. Her detective is Inspector Wexford. But how could I forget Jospehine Tey and Jane Austen and Emily Dickensen? (I didn't like poetry but I liked Emily) Bad on me. But there are more. I'm sure there are more, all tucked away on the dusty shelves of my memory. Never liked Heinlein but I did read Isaac Isimov. Ray Bradbury, to me, was never about science fiction. He was all about how prose could be lyrical. He made me believe even a tone deaf person like me might have songs to sing. Read him outloud. Music in words.

I dunno, Dianne, just figured anyone who had read Bradbury wouldn't have passed on "Stranger in a Strange Land". Asimov could be techical as hell. I think he (or one of them) was a scientest or something. Riply? Train? OK, without cheating (translation: searching the I'net), Riply: The movie with Mat Damon (or his look-a-like) about impersonating someone and was gay? I liked it. Train: I think I am confusing this one with Agatha but...the one where several people did the killing? Harder time remembering that one. I can be such a "tard-boy" sometimes!

Wrong train. You're thinking Murder on the Orient Express (yes, Agatha Christie). "Strangers on the Train" has to do with murder, but more with the psychology of murder. Depends on your taste in literature. Patricia Highsmith is less a mystery writer than a suspense writer. She wrote a classic "how to" book on the subject...not terribly thick but full of good information, if you think (as I do) that every story should have a thread of suspense running through it. Bradbury and Heinlein couldn't be more different in styles (to me). I liked "I, Robot" by Asimov...not technical, about the inhumanity of humanity. Beautifully thought out stuff....real and heart breaking. Well, it was to me at the time. I liked some of Harlan Ellison too but he's a mean cuss sometimes. Dashiell Hammett? Maybe he seems more my style. And he was, once.

Yep, definitely wrong train. Now I remember. Hey, but I didn't cheat...LOL Yep, you are dead on about "I, Robot". A few movies have touched on it recently, too. In a similar but different sort of way. "AI" and the Robin Williams movie (I forget title). Heinlein's "Stranger" is a good read. The follow-ons got a bit deeper into religion that I liked. The same thing happened with the "Dune" trilogy. But, I guess, it is to be expected. But, you summarize authors so darn well !

I was reading BellaMorte's email about the lack of female vampires and that made me recall some more favorites of my reading and viewing past. There is an amazing novella by Sheridan Le Fanu called "Carmilla." I don't know if this is the first appearance of the female vampire in literature but she certainly makes a dramatic entrance into the field. There is an argument whether or not Walter de La Mare's story "Seaton's Aunt" is about a vampire or not...I say, read it and decide for yourself. :) And, of course, Bram Stoker has the several female vampires appear in the original "Dracula" as wives or wives to be of the master. The female vampire has an honorable (?) if not widely known place in horror fiction. One of my favorite female vampires of movies (and there have been others) is "Dracula's Daughter" with Gloria Holden. I don't know if you can find it on video anywhere (it is very old - 1936) but if this is a genre you enjoy, it is worth seeing. There are people who will say that "Dracula's Daughter" is a better film than "Dracula" (Bela Lugosi version) because the latter is a stiffly filmed play while the former is truly a movie experience. I don't read in the genre any more, but there was a time when I knew my vampire lore. ;) Sorry for the continuation of this thread which can interest no one but myself, but the recollections were suddenly clear and demanding.

Interesting discussion and I thought I'd contribute my two pence worth. I don't read much in the way of detective fiction. Science fiction is generally more to my taste (and some fantasy but I'm quite critical of a lot of books I know many people like in this genre.) Favourite authors? This could be a long list... Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Tolkein (I even like the Silmarillion which I know many readers find disappointing after LOTR. I admit it can be hard going!) Bradbury (particularly the Martian Chronicles), Bruce Sterling, M John Harrison etc.... I could go on but perhaps it's best to refer you to my own web site of personal reviews if you're really interested in why I like these authors and in some of my favourite all time books... Some Book Reviews Trying to stay on topic I was interested in dialyns observation about changing taste. There are some authors I really liked, which I now look back on with fondness but wouldn't go out of my way to reread (e.g. Asimov) or the E.E. 'Doc' Smith epic Lensman series (which I suppose even at the time I always knew was only a piece of rip roaring escapism, and none the worse for that). My most extreme example in this category is Robert Heinlein. When I was first beginning to read science fiction at school I loved the "juveniles" - stories such as "Tunnel in the Sky", "Farmer in the Sky" and the more sophisticated "Door into Summer". I even liked the questionable "Starship Troopers" and quite enjoyed "Stranger in a Strange Land". Now I know this may upset the die hard fans, but as I got older and my political views matured, I found his later books increasingly hard to stomach. The plots of books such as "Job" and "The Number Of The Beast" got very narcissistic and navel gazing and the oddball extreme libertarian anti-government stuff just strikes me as crackpot. I also suspected that I was being preached at rather than entertained. In fact I started to feel that if Jubal Harshaw (one of Heinlein's many "wise acre" characters) patronised me with just one more little homily I'd like to punch his lights out (and I am not a violent person at all!) So I ended up actively disliking (if not hating) his work. Not sure if this was the author changing, or me changing, or a bit of both (but I had to get that rant off my chest!)

Ooooo, I see there is a dark streak in you. (grin) Remind me never to preach at you. With regards to Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land", the follow-on books sounded preachy, too. So, I know of what you speak. To some extent, the second and third book in the Dune trilogy got a bit preachy. Both dwelled a lot on religion. As long as confessions of youth are in order, I'll have to 'fess up about reading most of the Gor series from John Norman. If you're at all familiar with it (AND willing to admit to it), you'll recall MORE preaching. I swear the guy was trying to brain wash me about every 10 pages!

It is interesting to compare Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert in their treatments of religion because, as you say, they both use it as a major theme and whilst I don't like the Heinlein, I love Frank Herbert's work (even in the 2nd and subsequent books of the Dune trilogy).

For me, the key difference is that Herbert is interested in exploring the effect of his invented religion on the worshipers and the "messiah". He has some subtle things to say about how human beings seem to need religion and will ignore reality to get what they want, to the extent of making their leaders into martyrs. But even when he's describing the excesses of religion and the inner thoughts of the "messiah" I never feel he's preaching at me (the reader), just showing me how and why religion is making his universe descend into a violent jihad.

With Heinlein, his Messiahs don't have any problems (or at least not any problems of conscience, just problems of plot) and you get the impression that the author more than half believes in the message and wants to convince you how clever it is. That's why I feel he's preaching at me. Go much further in that direction and you end up with something like L. Ron Hubbard and scientology. Now that is scary!

I haven't read the Gor series (and it isn't that I'm just not admitting it!) although of course I've heard of them. Don't know why that series escaped me as at some stage I've read most of the "famous" fantasy series (including a few that I'd admit to reading but not liking, though I still finished them anyway so they can't have been that bad!) I guess Gor just slipped through the net, but it sounds from what you're saying as though I might not have liked it!

Oooo, VERY interesting comments on Heinlein and Herbert. I think you "hit the nail on the head" (sorry, helpless against an attack of the clichmonsters sometimes) with your analysis. AND, the next step with Hubbard! I originally got into the Gor series because of the cover art (Boris). Frankly speaking, it, I think, qualifies as pulp. You could do a search and find out more than you wanted to know, I suspect. To briefly explain (oops, there goes my split infinitive)...the author's hero is a "man's man". Strong, intelligent, warrior, etc. But a woman's worth is only that of a slave, lessor being, and object for sex. Norman, in my opinion, obsesses about it TOO much. Even as a 20-year-old, I found it to be too much. Which meant after the first few books I started by-passing the pages to get back to the storyline.

Ah, yes. The infamous cover art, which I must confess I have noticed. Hard for most 20 year old men not to notice that! (or should that be hard for 20 year old men to notice that? at the risk of a joke offending the TOS) Of course there is quite a bit of that kind of art on Renderosity.

I am afraid there won't be no mythic Structure for writers and writers protesting against the G7. Not wanting to offense the ones that will be touched, but it's just my intimate conviction and personal "forecast" that here in our tie, there won't be only "mythical" protests, neither only new "Myths"_ talking by example about the "dead Heroes that tried & failed change our "wonderful world", after the big "Wish of Some to Kill many..." from deadly nostalgics of this "old brave world" and the vigilant nostalgics about hard-headed partisans of the old same "Do not change a letter from what we built with our old & new Crimes" and "big brother" fan's either, because nobody's going to love nasty this dead "meat & myth". And it is an "alpha" speaking here, like you, who love USA !

Wow! A bit too deep for me! And you have a darn good knowledge of English ! As if I could ever string another language like you just did !

My favorite authors for as long as I can remember have been James Mitchner and Taylor Caldwell. Heavy reading at times but one learns much about history, humanity and life in those pages. Tolkien is definitely high on my list too. My tastes go more toward fantasy than pure sci-fi. Ann MaCaffrey, Marion ZImmer Bradley (she co-wrote "The Black Trillium" don't recall the other two authors)among others. Reading opens another world...