Mad Authors

[ShannonA]

I was amused by David's statement, "she went mad and needed to be locked in the attic where (unfortunately) there was a word processor". It made me think, what authors do people think went mad, and why?

I'll start:

Robert A. Heinlein. This is a pretty classic case that most science-fiction fans would cite. His ultra-conservative militaristic early stuff like Starship Troopers is totally different from his post Stranger in a Strange Land writing, and I know of few people who could deal with late works like Nature of the Beast.

Laurel K. Hamilton. She started off writing romantic urban fantasy and somewhere along the line (I use Obsidian Butterfly as my arbitrary breakpoint) she moved over to pornography. No plot, just sex with an ever increasing number of people.

Anne McCaffrey was the person cited in the other thread. I'll agree that I liked her early stuff, and her more recent stuff just left me cold, but I figured that was because I'd grown up. How did she go mad?

[vitus979]

The Brain-Eater got 'em. :)

[Anaka]

Anne McCaffrey got older and more conservative and started rambling off in public about an acquaintance of hers was/anecdote she heard about someone who was attacked while camping and sodomized with a tent peg. Said person has been gay ever since, so obviously this (or something like it) must be the case for all gay people. That same amazing lack of imagination and/or insular thought has contributed to her more recent efforts, I think, and her work has suffered for it. Lacking another example, that's probably what they mean when it's said she went mad.

[Anaka]

Oh, and to add some:

Piers Anthony. What started out somewhat innocently became fairly disturbing by the time he'd written his umpteenth Xanth book.

Orson Scott Card. Just... yeah.

Phillip K. Dick, of course, but then it's arguable that he was mad before he started writing rather than getting there afterwards.

[ShannonA]

Phillip K. Dick, of course, but then it's arguable that he was mad before he started writing rather than getting there afterwards.

And I think he managed to challenge his madness for good. The Valis Trilogy is brilliant and thoughtful, and was definitely the keystone of his "crazy" period.

[Anaka]

Indeed. No disagreement from me on that one.

[Anaka]

Ooh! And L. Ron Hubbard. Can't forget the Granddaddy of All Crazy Sci-Fi Writers.

[Something Else]

Ooh! And L. Ron Hubbard. Can't forget the Granddaddy of All Crazy Sci-Fi Writers.
Alternatively, he may have actually been a genius... and just manipulated crazy people.

What good would Philip K. Dick have been had he not been crazy? I mean, seriously, my favorite story of his ends with (spoiler for We Can Remember it for you Wholesale, but totally different from the ending of Total Recall) space mice death sticks!

[vitus979]

I don't think it counts on the "crazy" factor, but Eddings books have gone downhill pretty badly. Sure, they're all the same story, but the first rehash was interesting in its own way (Sparhawk). The last few times around it's been just painful (Athalus and the young gods/old gods series).

[Pilgrim]

Then there's Bradbury, with his latest saying there never has been censorship in the US and that Farenheit 451 was about the dumbing down effects of TV and popular culture.

[The23SidedDie]

Some suggest Dan Simmons - I think it's too early to tell.

[Anaka]

I read that interview with Bradbury, and I didn't take away that he claimed there'd never been censorship in the U.S.. Rather I read it as him saying that government censorship is what people are teaching as the theme of Farenheit 451, and that such a theme was never his intention. I can totally believe it wasn't his intention -- he's not a political author by and large, and the story works as well given his stated theme. It just also works on a political level, so well that it almost overpowers its intended theme in the eyes of the modern reader.

[Iozz-Sothoth]

I read that interview with Bradbury, and I didn't take away that he claimed there'd never been censorship in the U.S.. Rather I read it as him saying that government censorship is what people are teaching as the theme of Farenheit 451, and that such a theme was never his intention. I can totally believe it wasn't his intention -- he's not a political author by and large, and the story works as well given his stated theme. It just also works on a political level, so well that it almost overpowers its intended theme in the eyes of the modern reader.

Also, like Heinlen was at some points during his life, Bradbury probably isn't in the best of health at this point. I may disagree with his politics, but I'll be sad to see him go.:(

[Joebot]

Orson Scott Card. Just... yeah.




I used to like Card's stuff. The first couple of Alvin Maker books were fun, and I liked "Enchantment." Then I read some of Card's homophobic, hate-filled gay bashing, and I swore off his books forever. Kind of a shame too, because I would have liked to read "Empire" or his Ultimate Iron Man comics. Oh well.

How about Terry Goodkind? Can we throw him in this list too? I remember thinking his first book or two was okay, but by the third one, I was getting skeeved out by all the S&M stuff. I read about 50 pages of the fourth book, and that was it for me. Now I hear that his most recent books are filled with Ayn Rand-inspired objectivist dogma. Weird.

[ShannonA]

I used to like Card's stuff. The first couple of Alvin Maker books were fun, and I liked "Enchantment." Then I read some of Card's homophobic, hate-filled gay bashing, and I swore off his books forever. Kind of a shame too, because I would have liked to read "Empire" or his Ultimate Iron Man comics. Oh well.

Yep, that's a tough moral issue, and Card surely seems to bring it out more than just about everyone else.

I've never found his *books* to be offensive, and thus after a few years off I've returned to reading them.

And am I supporting a bigot? Yep. Call me a free rider, I guess.

[Joebot]

Yep, that's a tough moral issue, and Card surely seems to bring it out more than just about everyone else.

I've never found his *books* to be offensive, and thus after a few years off I've returned to reading them.

And am I supporting a bigot? Yep. Call me a free rider, I guess.


Yeah, it's a tough one. Like you said, Card's books themselves might not be objectionable, but I still struggle with it, based on how objectionable I find the author's beliefs and politics. I sometimes wish I'd never stumbled across any of Card's essays and editorials. Ignorance is bliss, ya know?

I certainly can't claim any moral high ground here. I currently have a short story under consideration for publication in Card's fiction magazine, "Intergalactic Medicine Show." If I should get lucky enough to get published, I'll be very ... conflicted. Obvioulsy I'll be thrilled to sell a story, but the money will see "tainted" somehow. Ugh.

[Random Nerd]

Phillip K. Dick, of course, but then it's arguable that he was mad before he started writing rather than getting there afterwards.

Dick doesn't count.

His crazy made his books better.

[JELEINEN]

Masamune Shirow seems to be another classic case of brain eater. The stuff he puts out anymore is near incomprehensible and his art is almost all port.

While I don't think he was crazy, Fritz Leiber certainly cranked up the dirty old man dial later in life. I recall the stuff in the last Fafhrd/Mouser book as being pretty creepy.

[Wakboth]

Some suggest Dan Simmons - I think it's too early to tell.
I think he started showing signs of a brain eater in Olympus, and went over the edge with the infamous "time traveller" story on his site.

[David Goodner]

Anne McCaffrey got older and more conservative and started rambling off in public about an acquaintance of hers was/anecdote she heard about someone who was attacked while camping and sodomized with a tent peg. Said person has been gay ever since, so obviously this (or something like it) must be the case for all gay people. That same amazing lack of imagination and/or insular thought has contributed to her more recent efforts, I think, and her work has suffered for it. Lacking another example, that's probably what they mean when it's said she went mad.

Yeah, that. And I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole. (It's okay. I'm a licensed englisher. I know how to handle hyperbole safely)

The last few McCaffrey books I've read have suffered from a sort of degeneration of conflict. Anne McCaffrey's conflicts have always been rather genteel. Even really active, violent stories tend to be more poetic than graphic, and more often conflict is resolved through diplomacy or guile (or vast, world-shattering psychic power, lightyears away from wherever the characters actually are). But lately, even that has been lacking. It's like she's gotten too nice to put her characters through the wringer anymore, and if the characters don't suffer for their victories at least a little bit, then I find it hard to care about the victories. Or the characters.

Adding to the list - Louis L'Amour got pretty loopy near the end. His last books get rather disjointed. I understand that he really was suffering from some kind of mental deterioration, though, so I don't like to make fun of him.

He's not a novelist, but I'd feel remiss if I didn't mention George Lucas. I mean, really. Jar-Jar.

David G.

[Eric Tolle]

I'll tell you exactly when Ann McCafferty got bit by the Brain Eater: Moretta's Ride.

You know that story: the one where a plague is killing everyone on Pern, and the heroic doctor has to travel through time to deliver the antidote to everyone in time, eventually killing herself from exhaustion. Evidently, because a person who can TIME TRAVEL can't figure out how to take a break and rest for a bit.

And then she wrote the gawdawful "conclusion" to the Dragonrider series, with its "You know that problem we've been facing for centuries? The one that's been driving all of our stories? We're just going to make it go away now." And with that out of the way, she could start writing stories about dolphins. And the Brain Eater started starving, because there just wasn't anything left.

[Litpho]

R.A. Lafferty and, to a lesser extent, Eric Frank Russel. Both managed to make downright weird stories work by harnessing their unique worldviews.