ClancyBoy

In this thread we share crappy writing by otherwise good authors.

Michael Chabon's book A Model World when has this stinker:

"Sheila had long, kinky black hair, spectacular eyelashes, and a nose that, like Ira's, flirted dangerously, but on the whole successfully, with immenseness."

What a horribly stilted way to say someone had a really big nose.

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

strangedaze

im on the fence about chabon as a writer. sometimes, brilliant. then i read something such as the above...

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His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.

ClancyBoy

Chabon has long greasy hair, wire-rimmed spectacles and a goatee. Yeah. He and David Foster Wallace should form a club.

To keep this thread on track though, Great Expectations has I line I hate, too. It was the chapter after pip beat up the wiry mick farmhand. He said he "hoped some dregs of good would come if it."

"dregs of good?" Argh, that sucks. Shame on you Mr. Dickens.

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

Shawn

I don't know... am I the only one that thinks Animal Farm was good writing, but bad prose?

I'm not sure how to describe that one.

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demonchild4110

I love Animal Farm! But I have always felt that 1984 is WAY over-rated!

quignov

I am saddened by this discussion. The only "positive" outcome of this discussion is that we see, authors that are considered great, are merely human. It is a shame when we take books that we love and adore, and attempt to find minute "discrepancies" that we may have with them. It is the book, as a whole, that is great, therefore, ripping the writer apart because of a single line is just a self-prophetic exercise. Does it make you feel as if your actually more intelligent than you really are to find errors in these authors' writings? Please, look for the positive in historically recognized authors and respect their abilities, as I am sure you would like them to do to you.

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ClancyBoy

What's wrong with humanizing the human?

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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.

raymondstary

Thank you. If I were you, I wouldn't want people analyzing my sentences, either.

SinnPlayer

But, by an author's involvment in this topic, aren't we calling the author 'good' and as a result not so much 'ripping [them] apart'. Furthermore, since this is indeed a writing forum and the authors here are being described as 'good', is it not implied that the respect that we should have for their abilities we, in fact, do.

((I don't necassarily disagree with you, but I do find the need to make sure that other sids of the story are made clear.))

Oracle

I think the thread is harmless, and amusing. Nobody's perfect. Every writer's got a bad line somewhere. This thread can be educational too-- you can see what makes a bad line and avoid it in your writing.

Alas, I don't have a line to offer. I flipped through a few books I had lying around and couldn't really find anything. I'll definitely post one if I find it though

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