oyster@uwmacc.UUCP (03/17/86)
In article <100@cad.UUCP> grady@cad.UUCP (Steven Grady) writes: >In a Spider Robnson book I was reading a few weeks ago, he says in >the introduction that one author made a bet about writing as bad a book >as possible, and the public loved it. He continued these things, and the books >are very successful. Have people heard this rumor? My first thought >is that it would be John Norman's _Gor_ books.. > Actually, I heard something like this about Heinlein and his "sex" books. He apparently wanted to write a ridiculously bad book showing how stupid it is to put blatantly sexual stuff in SF. When he did, people not only took it seriously, but thoroughly enjoyed it, so he's still churning 'em out. (Incidentally, I like 'em, too, so if you're gonna flame me, at least do it for the right reason!) - Joel ({allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster)
ins_bjms@jhunix.UUCP (03/20/86)
> In article <100@cad.UUCP> grady@cad.UUCP (Steven Grady) writes: > >In a Spider Robnson book I was reading a few weeks ago, he says in > >the introduction that one author made a bet about writing as bad a book > >as possible, and the public loved it. He continued these things, and the books > >are very successful. Have people heard this rumor? My first thought > >is that it would be John Norman's _Gor_ books.. > > > Actually, I heard something like this about Heinlein and his "sex" books. > He apparently wanted to write a ridiculously bad book showing how stupid it > is to put blatantly sexual stuff in SF. When he did, people not only took > it seriously, but thoroughly enjoyed it, so he's still churning 'em out. > I heard this about Steven Donaldson "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" series..... the littlest orc @ jhu
ins_bdk@jhunix.UUCP (03/20/86)
> In article <100@cad.UUCP> grady@cad.UUCP (Steven Grady) writes: > >the introduction that one author made a bet about writing as bad a book > >as possible, and the public loved it. ... My first thought is that it would > >be John Norman's _Gor_ books.. > > > Actually, I heard something like this about Heinlein and his "sex" books. > He apparently wanted to write a ridiculously bad book showing how stupid it > is to put blatantly sexual stuff in SF. When he did, people not only took > it seriously, but thoroughly enjoyed it, so he's still churning 'em out. > > - Joel ({allegra,ihnp4,seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!oyster) I also heard that when Heinlein wrote _The_Number_of_the_Beast_ that midway through the book, he made a bet with someone that no matter how poorly written a book was, if it had his name on it, it would sell. This explains why the first 200-300 pages of the book are very good (classic Heinlein) material and the rest is pretty much junk. (BTW: NOB did do very well on the best-seller lists, so if the bet was made...Heinlein would have won!) Ted Ying (I'm just renting this account...) "...this is like saying, 'If pigs had wings, they could fly.' Well, they don't so this isn't true..." - a JHU Statistics Professor ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- BITNET: INS_ATTY@JHUVMS UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!jhunix!ins_atty ins_atty@jhunix.BITNET allegra!hopkins!jhunix!ins_atty