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Termyn8or -> RE: Common themes I've seen in books that are annoying me lately. (8/30/2008 4:32:22 AM)
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I'll have you know it took me ten minutes to remember how to spell awkward (is that even right ?) after reading that.
I wonder if you could get a bio of the author(s), perhaps they were adopted and they did not fit in. That brings on a few assumptions which are not facts. They may be facts for one but not another. Remember everything written is from the author's perspective.
The other thing is that if the story had not gone that way, there would probably not be much of a plot. It's a bit like peotic license, fictionary license maybe ?
I am not sure I can agree with the author's assumption, that instinct trumps background. That would be like saying say a kid is adopted into a Jewish or Moslem family, and begins to sneak off to a restaurant for pork chops.
The premise also assumes that no Jew or Moslem ever wanted to eat pork, or an Amish person, natural born, would not want to play a musical instrument. I find this a bit far fetched, so I am pretty much agreeing with you.
I read very little fiction, but I have read some. The last one was Where The Red Fern Grows. In it, this dog makes it home under it's own power with part of it's intestines hanging out from an injury. I think that is pretty far fetched, but the plot was sufficient to validate the author's fictionary license.
You will find many works that have been poorly researched these days, and perhaps it has been that way for some time now. I see it in non-fiction, so expect it in fiction. I believe in fiction it is a mistake, in textbooks and informational books it is a crime. Creator help those who do not know enough to catch these blatant mistakes.
Good fiction is hard to write, because someone reading might know more about the technical aspects of something than the author. Really good writers reseach meticulously, and try to make it so noone catches them in a mistake, but when you start talking about personal issues, things take a turn very quickly. You speak from personal experience and are comparing it with someone else's perspective, which is fine and good, but what if you and your friends are the exception ? I am not saying that is the case, but the possibility exists.
While I don't want to psychoanalyse you, there is one point I would make. If you are finding books that have themes of adoptive Parents, that means you are looking. That means it is on your mind. I'm not saying to check yourself into a mental institution or anything of the sort, and it really doesn't even qualify as a quirk. Don't sweat it, you only live once.
Being technically oriented, I like scifi. When I read scifi I look for errors all the time. It is just natural for me to do so. When I write scifi, check yourself out of this reality and into another. That is what makes it work. I wrote a story and the set and setting is 400 years in the future and things have changed drastically. It is very kinky but in the first part there is alot of explanation about how the world is "now", and how it got to be that way. Reviews have been mixed, I recieved high accolades from some, and from others a "ho-hum".
For example I described the difference in how justice is administered in this new world. Some people would say "RIGHT ON !" and others would say "That's ridiculous", but it helps make the story work. For example a thief steals $10,000. EVERYTHING he owns is destroyed and he is given the amount he stole, but that money is no good here for anything, he is banished and it doesn't matter if he starves. He traded the trust society put in him for a lump sum, here it is, now go and never come back, and hope like hell your reputation has not preceeded you to your destination. Nothing but the $10,000 and the clothes on your back, and nobody will sell you anything, a car, food, nothing. Imagine starving to death with $10,000 in your pocket. What happens to rapists would probably be of much interest to some people here.
A writer writes, and that may be part of the problem. I wrote when I had an idea, and today I don't, so I don't write. If I had given up my "day job" to write, sooner or later I would have to come up with something.
In RL I have had a certain discussion several times with different people, why is it through the seventies that a band's first album is always the best, or at least most of the time ? It's because it took them their whole lives to do it. Then some one who "smokes a big cigar and drives a Caddilac car" says "I think this band's outta sight". Then they have to come up with a new album every year or two, and then you get filler. They start doing remakes of older tunes and things they would never do before, to fulfill the contract.
I think the same force is at work when it comes to writing. Money. Therefore in some cases we get quantity instead of quality.
T
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