Stephen King recently gave an interview in which he noted that both J.K.Rowling and Stephanie Meyer target young adult readers, but whereas J.K. Rowling can write, Meyer "isn't very good."
Now, I am not exactly sure what he meant by that comment or if Stephanie Meyer even cares. I know about a million women of all ages who SWEAR by the love story between Edward and Bella and devour Ms. Meyer's every word. For the record, I have never read the Twilight series, but my 12 year old sister adores it. My 15 year old sister couldn't initially get through the first book because of Meyer's "terrible writing,"but overcame that problem once she got sucked into the story. I have heard others complain about the quality of the writing, but almost all of them have still read and re-read the books.
What I really wonder is what King means by "good," and if he, of all people, is qualified to make such a statement. Obviously, King is a prolific writer who has seen much success in his career (on a side note, if there are any struggling writers out there, you should really read King's own account of his days as an almost-starving teacher with a family who never gave up hope...it's really inspiring.) But a critics' darling, Mr. King is certainly not. He is clearly an imaginative storyteller, capable of creating characters and plots which resonate with his readers, but I am not sure if the literary intelligentsia considers his work seminal. I know that I like his novels and will always read them. This is because even if I don't like his writing per se, I almost always like his stories.
To be honest, I am not sure there is such a thing as a "good" writer. There are certainly successful writers and not--so-successful writers and writers of great acclaim and those who garner little regard. But, there hasn't always been a direct correlation between those who are the best with those who are the most successful. I assume the millions of people around the world who have read the Twilight series think Ms. Meyer's writing is a-ok, otherwise they wouldn't be spending mad money on her books. If you ask them, they think her stories are amazing and they feel as though they have entered in this amazing place she has created just for them. That is probably why she is earning gajillions of dollars right now. That's also probably why Mr. King does so well, despite past criticism over the quality if his writing.
As a young adult, I came across several books which resonated with me and that I was oh-so-crazy about--some were by noted writers (Austen, Steinbeck, the Bronte sisters), some, not so much (the Nancy Drew books, even Ayn Rand, who was never considered a great writer in her time). Even now, after years of being provided examples of "good" writing, I still find their stories compelling. Does it matter if Stephanie Meyer is a "good" writer if people read her books, anyway? Or, does the fact that she writes for young adults place a greater responsibility on her to write better?
What are your thoughts?
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Hmm, this rubbed me the wrong way as well. I think it was just his elitist way of expressing his frustration that a virtually untrained "housewife" was able to crank out a bestseller in what, a month?? Sounds like Mr. King is j-e-a-l-o-u-s. Like the blog, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteChristina
I agree with you, Christina. People seem to underestimate how entertaining books can be and dimiss the fact that they are supposed to be! And I think Stephen King doesn't like the idea of readers liking someone else's books over his.
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