Debate/Rant/whatever: The future of literature.

I read.
I'm sure everyone on this forum does, after all you have to understand language at least a little to sign on to this site.
However, I read a lot more than text on a screen. I read newspapers, okay, I sometimes read newspapers, I read magazines from time to time, I read books a lot.
Newspapers and magazines are in no danger of becoming obsurdly bland and meaningless, they pay people to make them palatable.
However, books are becoming boring.
No, I'm not saying I'm getting tired of books. I'm saying that a lot of today's writers SUCK.
I admit, I stick primarily to the fantasy genre. I go out of my element from time to time, usually i'm pleasantly surprised. However, a lot of fiction written in the last ten years really is lacking.
Dan brown's "the Da Vinci code" is an example. Overlooking the plot holes, and the fact that "Da vinci" means 'from vinci', I'm sure it had a great plot, but I just could not get past the writing! I'm sure I've gotten a few 'Craaaazaaaay' looks for expressing this, but I don't like being talked at. Talked to, perfectly fine, I like talking and I like listening (I run my mouth enough you'd never fathom the latter ) but I don't like bing talked AT. Reading "the Da Vinci code" was like being talked at. It was blunt, lacked finess and was agrivating at best. Let's not forget that it felt like a third grade reading assignment. ( I got an F in third grade reading, by the way. I refused to read a book that I felt insulted my intelligence with a first grade [ which I found out my first grade was a public school's third grade at a later date ] reading level. So yes, the words struck me as very 'babyish.)
Yet, it's a best seller. I have a hard time figuring out HOW, unless you count the 'scandal' it caused. In which case I'd be able to understand it, but on the merits of the book, I can't see how it sold much.

Then we have the opposite problem. Decent writing with a horrible story.
Vampire Kisses.
I may not have been able to read Dan Brown's book, but at least I was able to put it down. Vampire Kisses was a train wreck. I couldn't look away as everything I thought would happen did. It was so horribly cliche and predictable I had to look around my room to make sure I hadn't been sucked into the computer and uploaded to fanfiction.net. the person had a lively writing style , not my deal, but at least they were talk TO you rather than talking down upon you like some lesser life form not gifted with the understandung of this screwed up english language. But all the same, the story sucked donkeys.

Aside from writers that have been writing fantasy for ages, i can't seem to find a book written in the past ten years by a 'new' writer to save my life. Mind you, I admit there are exceptions. I'm loving Wicked, I have no idea when it was written or if the writer wrote more books before. But I do know I like it. But aside from that I can't find good books!
My immeadiate conclusion?
Today's writers just aren't up to snuff!
We have cool stories finally making it back to the TV, but will this trend make it's way back into books? And will we get writers with interesting writing styles back?
I mean, I know I rag on Fanfiction.net, after all you can click on any random story and you're going to be disappointed a lot of the time. But it does have good writers and it brings a question to mind. "Is the future of literature the internet?"

So, there's my rant. Agree? Let's rant together! Disagree? Give my your oppinion, I'll be glad to listen. Have some ecamples of decent books written by writers that published for the first time in the last ten years? Suggest away! Just want to talk? That's good too. I wrote this to create a discussion after all.

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"i have killed many in my life."
Justin.
(Quote taken out of context)

	Kat Reverie wrote:
	Overlooking the plot holes, and the fact that "Da vinci" means 'from vinci', I'm sure it had a great plot,

...I know this was not the point of the rant.

But, I highly doubt the reason it's called "The Da Vinci Code" has anything to do with the fact that "Da Vinci" means "From Vinci".

Now, I haven't read the book either - I saw the trainwreck of a movie and talked to a handful of people who thought that the book was brilliant. Apparently, the plot has something to do with a code put into all of his works by Leonardo Da Vinci.

As for good, recent books - I've recommended them to you before, but I might as well put it out for everyone else - I HIGHLY recommend the "Saga of the Noble Dead" series. The plot in the first one (Dhampir), is perhaps bland to some people, but it sets up the characters. The second one (Thief of Lives), is better by far. I'm currently on the third one, Sister of the Dead. Loving it.

I wasn't aware it had grown since I bought Sister of the Dead, though, I thought the only one out so far I didn't have was the forth. (Traitor to the Blood) There's five books out, a sixth one scheduled for January, and then atleast 3 books for a separate series in the Saga, the first of which is scheduled for 2009 - this second series reportedly involves two characters we meet along the way in Series 1, a new main character, a setting on another continent, and continuation of the underlying conflict/mystery from Series 1.

I'm sure, unless the stories start getting bland, I'll be buying them regardless.

_________________
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster...when you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes back." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I actually have read The Da Vinci Code! Wow Very Happy

! Kat's right, the writing wasn't exactly poetic, but I did enjoy the story. A professor specializing in symbolism is caught up in a modern-day quest for the Holy Grail. The Grail is not actually a goblet that caught the blood of Christ, but the body of Mary Magdelene which carried the blood of Christ because, Brown insists, Mary was pregnant with Jesus' child at the time of the crucifiction. Brown goes on to suggest that there exists a secret society dedicated to guarding this secret, which has been headed by such lofty folk as Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo . . . and Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci's famous paintings apparently hold keys proving that Mary Magdelene was married to Jesus, particularly in The Last Supper.

Of course, this made waves in Christian communities. How could Jesus be this divine, all-knowing holy being and be married to the reformed prostitute who washed his feet? It was an idea that captured public interest, that's all.

ANYWAY!

I totally see what you mean with the bad books, and it's not just the fantasy genre. I reside in the horror genre, and recently I've read a couple of enjoyable books with great plots and whatnot, but the writing itself was heinous! The last one was Forever Will You Suffer by Gary Frank. I loved the story, but it felt like it was written by a seventh grade robot.

Even the big names are getting sloppy. I just finished Stephen King's short story collection Everything's Eventual, written in 2002. While a lot of the stories were good ideas, the writing lacked the finesse of King's earlier works, like The Shining or Salem's Lot. Thomas Harris has been on a downward slide since Silence of the Lambs, with that mess that was Hannibal and the long and tedious Hannibal Rising. I haven't read much of Dean Koontz's recent stuff, other than Frankenstein, but from what I hear and observe he's also been declining since he wrote stuff like Phantoms.

The internet is a fantastic tool for a budding writer. Anybody can publish anything on the internet; it's wonderful. I wouldn't be surprised if there are casual internet writers fit to be the next generation of JRR Tolkiens and HP Lovecrafts, and they don't even know it. Or maybe they do know it, but they feel the publishing world has become so polluted with crap they feel it's better to distribute their work freely.

It's interesting.

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Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative.

Juu, "Da vinci" is not a name Leonardo Da Vinci goes by. It doesn't take much research to find that out. While yes most call him 'da vinci,' it's still not how he'd be called in a REASEARCHED book. He failed at a few other areas of research from what I have heard (News reports chatted it up like nothing else, one of the things was about a painting that was either too big to move, or wasn't wall mounted or something... That one may have been in the list of movie exclusive foibles, but I only watched one thing about the movie while mom taped about 30 things about the book.) and the plot holes were all research based from what I could tell.

Also, I wasn't talking about books written in the last ten years, I mean people who publish for the first time in the last ten years. XD I don't know when the writer first published, but those are on my ever growing list of books to get.

Vatiel, I know the basic story, mum read the book and liked it. Then is the movie, which while it wasn't perfect, mom said a lot of it was similar. :3 I just couldn't get past the writing. To me it's very painful because it won't grab me no matter how hard I try to read it.
It's a good concept (that too many people took seriously *rolls eyes* ) but I just can't see how it gopes in the book because the writing it's self lacks any form of finess. I don't like feeling like I'm being shouted out.
Yeah, it made a huge ripple. Ignoring that mary magdaline wasn't the prostitue per-se. It was more the "OMG JESUS NEVER HAD SEX" thing.

I just can't read poorly written stuff. I took myself off of a list of Betas because this writer... UHG, she couldn't even SPEAK proper english and her story was horrible. I spent more time correcting her grammar and giving her writing hints (which, by the way, is sad because I'm not that good at the whole putting the story and writing together part. I RARELY feel something is bad enough for me to step up and give full forced writing advice because I'm not terribly good at it myself and don't want to lead someone wrong.) than I did reading the atrocity. Now I'll Beta for my friends, and NON fan fiction.

I actually find better things on the net than I do on store shelves. I find a LOT of crap on line too, but there are gems.
I think that if it's done right, the internet is the future of literature. What I wonder is if it's a good thing.

I mean, to me, sitting down with a good book is awesome. I'm all for things going digital, mail for instance. And shopping. But, I think somethings should stay analog, or be part analog. I find reading on the comp to be hard on my eyes, certainly not relaxing.

_________________

"i have killed many in my life."
Justin.
(Quote taken out of context)

	Kat Reverie wrote:
	Also, I wasn't talking about books written in the last ten years, I mean people who publish for the first time in the last ten years. XD I don't know when the writer first published, but those are on my ever growing list of books to get.

I don't know if this was meant in response to my suggesting the Saga of the Noble Dead, but if it was - it's written by a couple, Barb & J.C. Hendee, and Dhampir WAS their first book published, so they did publish for the first time in the last ten years. Barb wrote a book named "Blood Memories" in 1999 that was apparently published, (taken from Wiki), but aside from that. First published as a couple.

_________________
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster...when you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes back." - Friedrich Nietzsche