Terminalcoffee discussion

Okay, fine, I'll start one then:

Scoffing at Dan Brown's 'Literary Success'

Yeah, yeah, I'm pimping my blog...

Good article too.

Well thought out and expressed Gus.

i liked all of the dan brown books i read. fast paced and fun. when i read fiction i just want to be distracted and relax. i am looking forward to the new book

I like the blog.
It really must suck to be a writer and have to watch someone you think is mediocre(at best) in the same field rake in the dough and popularity.
I sometimes read bad fiction. I just like to, now and then. Just like watching a made for Lifetime movie.
Sometimes, I just think it's fun(and funny).
I keep reading these crappy novels though, where the writer gets a yen for a certain word or two, and in my head I keep saying, "Stop saying that his mind is fragmented! You can't use that same phrase every single chapter! FIND A THESAURUS!!"
And then I forget why I like to even pick these things up.
Although, the mindlessness factor is appealing.

Gus's blog is always good.

Gus is on a fascinating anti-Dan Brown crusade, too. I mean, this guy really seems to bug you, Gus...I don't mean that in a bad way...:)

Gus, just for you my friend.

http://www.salon.com/books/review/200...

I should point that I'm not on an anti-Dan Brown crusade, per se. His success doesn't bother me, nor do people who read his stuff bother me. What bothers me is his arrogant insistence that good writing is secondary to a better story. The problem is, his stories are often half-baked and ridiculous (in a bad way), and those stories are destroyed by his mangling of common fiction writing.

I agree with you Gus. I abhor bad writing, and I will read his new book. I just love reading his books with my red pen.

Gus, that was a great blog. I liked the links, especially - very tongue-in-cheek.

I can't comment on Dan Brown. I tried to read The Da Vinci Code twice and couldn't make it past the first chapter.

Sandi wrote: "I can't comment on Dan Brown. I tried to read The Da Vinci Code twice and couldn't make it past the first chapter."

Sandi, are you saying the abysmal writing, sentence deconstruction, and hollow plots turn you off?

I don't even know if any of that exists in the book. I never made it far enough through. I think it just felt like I had read it before and didn't want to be bothered.

Hahaha, chances are you have read it all in other books, and this is just another arrangement of the same tired stories.

Well said, Gus, well said.

LOL!!! Read the 20 worst sentences.

The Di Ser Piero Code would've been more accurate. But that of course would sound less like a bestseller and more like the crap it really is.

No offence to Leonardo. Really. His dad had a great name.

hey! i just saw an actual copy of dan's new crap story. i can't wait to get a copy

They pushed Dan Brown's latest on us the last time we were in the bookstore. Luckily, I was with my mom and look like I'm a 'young-adult' so they hounded my mom while I was left to browse (although they kept coming up to me and trying to guide me to the YA selection, saying they had a buy-one-get-one-half-off special going on). Had they tried to push it on me, I would have laughed and said I didn't read shit like that.

Gus: good article, man! I'm a little taken aback by the amount of press Pynchon's new novel is getting by people who have never read a Pynchon novel.

One of my friends on facebook was saying something like "OMG I am reading the new Dan Brown novel I am such a nerd!" and it took all I had to keep from commenting, "You're not a nerd, you're an idiot."

Angie, that's perfect. I think Code is a dreadful book and Brown is a hack writer playing to the consiracy theorist in all of us. What really makes me smile is being told that Code is indeed a feminist book because M.M. is practically a goddess because she...well, you know...instead of portraying her as the most favored of the disciples...now *that* might have been intersting. Although if Brown wrote it, the book would still be tripe.

Lilly, I agree with you. So write a nice hack job of a novel with the Vatican, secret societies (preferably Catholic), symbolism sometimes misread, world shaking news such as, St. Anthony of Padua was a drag queen and the church's cover up is the source of all the problems.

Nope, I don't want any of Dan Brown's blood money. What I do want is either a National Book Award, a Booker Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, or a Nobel Prize. If not all.

The Booker can only be won by being unreadable.

Gus, will the prize in a box of Crack Jacks do?

Oh, I can write unreadable.

Then get crackin' ;-)

i am going to try and get the book at the airport tomorrow :)

Speaking of airports, the next time anyone has a flight to catch or a layover at the airport, drop by the newsstands. If what I've observed lately is correct, you'll see copies of the assorted masterworks of one L. Ron Hubbard. I've seen his books at the newsstands at the Charlotte, Miami, Orlando and New York (LGA) airports.

This leads me to believe the persons or company that own these newsstands are Scientologists.

Just a hunch.

hahahahahaha.

I thought they were there to represent the fantasy genre in a non-thinking, nonmemorable, way.

You can count JFK and LAX in that too, Gus.

I think it's similar to what Gail said about a "non-thinking" way... Most of the books sold in airports are meant to be ones you read while in the sky and then toss at the end of your journey.

Really? Then I sense a Scientology conspiracy. Start small, and before you know it, Scientology Airlines will come to fruition.

Gus, there's a novel in this. Get on it.

Don't they all have alien blood?

But does it fully explain Tom Cruise?

Yeah, supposedly Scientologist believe some they all have the DNA of some alien warlord named Xenu.

That says A LOT about their belief system. And here I am thinking Christians are crazy for thinking some old guy with a big white beard snapped his fingers and said, "Let there be light!"

Don't be simplistic. God don't gots no fingers.

Funny thing is, that L Ron Hubbard alien book, came out with A Novel on the cover long ago. I even read it. And as a friend of mine described Dianetics: telling people what they ought to already know.

Just watch out for rattlesnakes in your mailbox, guys.

Is that their scare tactic?

As I recall.

They do sell those at Walgreens, I believe.

Use an infrared scanner.

Or, if you're gay, they'll out you. Unless you've already outed yourself.

Rumor has it John Travolta wants out of Scientology over the way they've dismissed his son's death - Scientologists refuse to acknowledge the existence of autism, which Travolta's son was an autistic - but, if he does, there may or may not be some incriminating photos of Travolta doing some not-so-heterosexual things that may come to light.

If that's true, that's beyond scummy.

Way beyond.

But up to their level of manipulation. I suggest a big stick, whack the mailbox, if it rattles, there's a rattlesnake in there. Another clue, is a dead postman.

omg i thought i was the only one that thinks he's a crap writer, im so glad im not alone! his storylines are good, he just has a problem with execution. his writing isn't very literary at all : P maybe it's because my favorite authors are people like Dickens and Wilde so i have high expectations : )

Are you sure you don't mean Great Expectations?

I'm sure, I try to avoid puns when possible

You're in good company, MC (may I call you "MC?"); bashing Dan Brown is pretty much a spectator sport around here.

Gus, have you taken his money yet?

I did like Angels and Demons. But other two...