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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: "Norbert G. Matausch (BulletShower)"
Subject: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 14:08:02 +1000
Andreas Loeber said, his fave authors were
> Robert N. Charette and Nigel Findley (especially 2XS)

Though I know that arguing about taste is pointless, let me comment
on these two ;)

Bob Charette is IMHO a good writer. He uses round characters,
different plots and a language that fits into the genre. Nigel
Findley is IMHO (again) too bad a writer. He uses only flat
characters, one-dimensional, without even the slightest twist, or
new variation. Over here at Munich University, I'm a student of
German Literature and American Cultural History. At the moment, I'm
in a "Media" seminar, and my topic is kitsch. And, let me tell you,
Findley's stories are the stereotypical kitsch product. His writing
is just too awful, and his ideas are just too far-fetched. All these
points wouldn't really matter if he was able to *write* well. But not
even this is the case. I think the bucks are *not* well spent when
somebody buys his books.

Just my two pfennigs,

Bullet
______________________________________________________________________
"Gott wuerfelt nicht" (A. Einstein)
For More information on diceless roleplaying and own Shadowrun stuff,
jack into http://www.cip.fak14.uni-muenchen.de/~nmatausc
Message no. 2
From: Myrddin <aloeber@***.RHEIN-ZEITUNG.DE>
Subject: Re: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 14:20:48 -0700
Ok
I have to admit that Nigel Findleys style isn't very good.
But it is fun to read during vacations.
Also several people seem to agree with me.
Message no. 3
From: Peter Leitch <pleitch_hpcs@*******.COM.AU>
Subject: Re: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 01:08:47 +1000
At 14:20 24/10/96 -0700, Myrddin wrote:
>Ok
>I have to admit that Nigel Findleys style isn't very good.
>But it is fun to read during vacations.
>Also several people seem to agree with me.


You mean, wasn't...Nigel Findley wasn't very good.
He died in 1995...which was a loss, although I admit
his novels were not that great (they were OK). But
I hope you guys are not seriously considering anyone
who writes Shadowrun novels as *GOOD* writers. They're
all pretty much standard hacks, as far as the craft goes.
There are far better authors out there, they just don't write
Shadowrun stories. Like David Webber & Louise
McMaster Bujold, Anne McCaffrey and so on.

PML

***************************************
Peter Leitch
<pleitch_hpcs@*******.com.au>
Canberra, Australia
Message no. 4
From: Mike Buckalew <mike_buckalew@******.COM>
Subject: Re: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 13:29:30 -0700
I've only read one Findley novel (2XS), and it didn't stand out as being
better or worse than the other SR novels I've read. What stands out to
me are the sourcebooks. When the announcement of his death first hit the
list last year, I had just completed a crash program in rereading all of
the SR sourcebooks. I looked back to see which ones were his, and
everyone that he had written was one that I had thoroughly enjoyed and
found important to the overall game. Regardless of what you think about
his novels, I would suggest taking a look at his sourcebooks before
disparaging him too much.


Buck
(Mike Buckalew)
buck@******.com

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Message no. 5
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 12:11:58 +0100
Norbert G. Matausch (BulletSh said on 14:08/24 Oct 96...

> Bob Charette is IMHO a good writer. He uses round characters,
> different plots and a language that fits into the genre. Nigel
> Findley is IMHO (again) too bad a writer. He uses only flat
> characters, one-dimensional, without even the slightest twist, or
> new variation. [rest snipped]

IMHO you're not supposed to look at game novels as literature, but as a
book that gives you something to pass the time with. Most of them are
at least entertaining, and give some new insights into the game world (or
are used to further the game world timeline, as is very often the case
with FASA's BattleTech novels), but the one thing most of them are not, is
high-quality literature (does the world "quality" apply to books, anyway?)

Anyway, you can always use them for something else, if the paper is shoft
enough :)

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
...but I don't know...
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-

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Message no. 6
From: BulletShower <nmatausc@****.CIP.FAK14.UNI-MUENCHEN.DE>
Subject: Re: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 14:08:48 +1000
Gurth wrote:

> IMHO you're not supposed to look at game novels as literature, but as a
> book that gives you something to pass the time with.

I call them literature in scientific terms. Literature is according
to these terms everything that's written.

> Most of them are
> at least entertaining, and give some new insights into the game
> world

True. :)

> but the one thing most of them are not, is
> high-quality literature

How do you define "high-quality" literature? Do you mean the
classical canon novels written by people like Goethe, Thomas Mann,
Novalis, etc. These are *also* works of literature. Modern literature
theories tend to see texts, not matter who wrote them, as literature.
"Canon" is mass of texts which have been considered "good" texts.
This is not correct any more. What you call "good" literature is
nothing else than the result of the so-called "dichotomy" which was
declared by authors and artists around 1600. They tried to separate
the common folk from the "artists" (whom they considered to be
"better humans"). This point of view has been carried even into our
generation's school system, though some teachers try to avoid this.

> Anyway, you can always use them for something else, if the paper is shoft
> enough :)

[Fart sound file on]

:)
BulletShower
______________________________________________________________________
"Gott wuerfelt nicht" (A. Einstein)
For More information on diceless roleplaying and own Shadowrun stuff,
jack into http://www.cip.fak14.uni-muenchen.de/~nmatausc
Message no. 7
From: Gurth <gurth@******.NL>
Subject: Re: Authors, authors, authors (was: Last Novel)
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 1996 10:50:01 +0100
BulletShower said on 14:08/25 Oct 96...

> I call them literature in scientific terms. Literature is according
> to these terms everything that's written.

Yes, but you see, the Dutch language has two words for this kind of
stuff: "literatuur" and "lectuur" -- the latter being stuff like those
book equivalents of soap operas, but also to a certain extent (if you ask
me) game novels.

--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
Why are wrong numbers never engaged?
-> NERPS Project Leader & Unofficial Shadowrun Guru <-
-> The Plastic Warriors Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/plastic.html <-

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