The baron was an obnoxious glutton -- DUNE Novels Discussion Board

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04/25/24 22:56:23 [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

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Date Posted: 05:07:53 05/16/03 Fri
Author: RavensZim
Subject: The baron was an obnoxious glutton
In reply to: The Cannabist 's message, "old suject, new thread. Read RavensZim, Idaho and Butterfly" on 19:31:26 05/15/03 Thu

You can consider it "canon' if you want. I have a little experience with his sort of thing. I illustrated a story done by the late Roger Zelazny- author of the "Amber" series. I have friends that were very close to Roger, and they were VERY against this sort of thing... Roger let it be known before he passed that he didnt want the series to be franchised;continued without him...his heirs decided against this, for the money, obviously, and a 'pre-history' is being published now. It's taking established beloved characters by Zelazny and giving them motives- that are to be considered in Roger's original series- and warping the whole thing. The writing was bad in book 1,and I wonder just how much damage it could do to the longevity of the series- if that book is placed as a "book 1" for the whole Amber series in the future, I don't see many people bothering to buy book 2.
Another example is the group of pastiche novels and stories written by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp, based on the great Robert E. Howard's pulp creation, Conan. While the organization of his original short stories was very marketable, and may have helped spread the readership of Conan to millions, the poor writing and 'watering down' of the character by these two inferior writers has helped create the joke that is now Conan the Barbarian, in most people's eyes. You think Conan is bad? then try reading "Tower of the Elephant, " or "People of the black Circle...." You'll see some good stories, there.
Finally, the notes that Frank may or may not have made about these characters were just that: notes, not part of the written story. A writer should always build several layers to a character so that he can be sure of that character's motives while he writes. Frank decided that some issues would be too "coincidental" for a believable story, I'm sure. (A great writer once told me that any decent story shouldn't have more that one coincidence in it) As the story developed, I'm also sure that Frank decided against several of the histories he'd had in his notes.
What resulted was the most magnificent effort at world- building in fictional history. Now it's been tainted.

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Unless Frank gave his blessing, tacitly or not, to Brian to continue the series (NT) -- IDAHO, 13:00:52 05/16/03 Fri