Terrible Taste Confessions

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Gawd, you guys are PITIFUL with all your half-assed namby pamby "terrible taste" confessions. I can't take all this wannabe posing any more.

I'll give ya Terrible Taste that should curl yer toes.

JR Ward. Black Dagger Brotherhood. The entire 8 volume series.

And I wasn't even high at the time.

How are you not Chontraerius?

[Contrarius]

How are you not Chontraerius?

ROFLMAO.

Those books have the most ridiculous character names I've ever seen in my life.....

edited to add -- oh wait, I know! Only the guys have the ridiculous names. The women have normal names. So my name ought to be Betty or something...

(For those who aren't familiar with these books, the male characters are named things like Muhrder and Vishous and Rehvenge. Seriously.)

[drawkcabi]

I'll admit it. I liked Terry Goodkind when I first read him. And I was in my mid-twenties, so really no excuse except I never had my encounter with Ayn Rand in college and didn't go through the phase when I thought objectivism was the philosophy of champions until I realize it's all bullshit. So Goodkind's cheap dulled down regurgiatation of Randian philosophy caught me unawares.

I read the first six books of SOT and even re-read them. Accepted the evil chicken as an embodiment of an evil spirit, didn't think there was anything absurd about it. Didn't care about the sixth book being a huge rant about communism, the story was still good (yeah I thought that) even if I didn't agree with everything Goodkind's saying. When the seventh book came out I bought it in hardcover, didn't mind the goat being a huge character. Finally the eighth book, Naked Empire, I finally realized, you know, this Goodkind guy is kind of a shitty writer... and it was like a bubble burst in my brain and I just felt befouled from the inside out. What the hell? How could I think this was any good? Even now when I think about that time I shudder in revulsion.

[Galactus]

I read the first SOT book and thought it was... Average fantasy. A bit BDSM-ish but not really that horrible. Then the second one laid one was just horrible.

(I think the fact that the swedish translation was horrible ("Mörken Rahl"!) helped me overlook the issues iwth it. I just figured the translation was dodgy.

[Larry.]

Self-deprecation is generally more fun and sociable than self-congratulation. Just sayin'.

Perhaps, but perhaps something was lost in the transmission; there are several here who view the fictions I love as being "terrible" in and of themselves. What I said was more of a wry commentary than praising my own tastes, which are, as always, solely my provence (as others are their own). Who am I to judge what another might find enjoyable (or terrible)? De gustibus and all that, I suppose.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

But that's the thing - nobody's asking you to decide what someone else likes or doesn't like, or does or does not find 'worthy' in whatever way. This whole thread is about admitting things that YOU LOVE and that YOU ALSO ADMIT YOU FIND TERRIBLE.

So unless you're going to say that, I don't know (and these are just hypotheticals, not anything I personally believe) you admit that China Mieville's Bas-Lag races are actually pretty preposterous *but* you love the books in spite of the ridiculousness, or you think Gene Wolfe should actually be called Victor Frankenstein for his manipulation of words *but* you still dig in to each book to see what he comes up with, or you think that the ending of Norwegian Wood was actually just manipulative and kind of trite, but you love the sensations Haruki Murakami makes you feel.... Well, in that case you're really not participating in the thread at all, just repeating how you don't read "those" books like the rest of us, but tee hee sometimes other people simply don't like what you read (and isn't it just too bad that they can't appreciate enough to get the same experience you do)?

[Larry.]

Ah, well, I'll just admit that there was a point to this lost somewhere for me, as I was thinking more in regards to things that OTHERS thought were terrible that one liked.

[Serious Callers Only]

I've read all of Wildcards.

Oh yeah, i went there.

[Serious Callers Only]

Oh, OK, sir, I stand corrected :thumbsup:. I've only read half, so ... :bowdown: ... maybe it'll improve somewhat as I read more.

Basically, almost all Gemmell books have the same structure. They're slightly reflective last stands from cynical men that decide to be "an hero" for honor (or a cynical narrator watching the hero). Legend is the first and mostly less embellished one, and Troy is the last and most regarded, but you can be fairly certain they'll all follow the script (except Waylander, that is a slight subversion).

There's another thing you can always be certain - there is going to be a absurd body count (especially Waylander).

What i'm saying sir, and don't take this badly (or do), your grimdark avatar notwithstanding, you don't appear to be manly enough to enjoy these manly sagas about manly deed with manly thoughts.

It made me 15% more of a man to read troy. If i was a woman, my clitoris would have enlarged like if i did steroids and bodybuilding, into a mini-penis, but as i am not, i just got a manly frown from contemplating the wickedness of men and the arduous path of honor.

I could probably write a terrible book myself.

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

ROFLMAO.

Those books have the most ridiculous character names I've ever seen in my life.....

edited to add -- oh wait, I know! Only the guys have the ridiculous names. The women have normal names. So my name ought to be Betty or something...

(For those who aren't familiar with these books, the male characters are named things like Muhrder and Vishous and Rehvenge. Seriously.)

Oh god, I went back and looked at the list. I may have to check these out just for the ridiculousness.

Wrath, son of Wrath.

Rhage

Zsadist

Butch (who is turned and becomes Dhestroyer)

Vishous

Phury

Rehvenge

Tohrment

John, who doesn't realise he is really Tehrror until later

Qhuinn (Seriously? Qhuinn?)

Blaylock (at this point I am pulling a Ce'Nedra and imagining a silent H in there. And an X for good measure. Actually, as I look at the female characters, there's a Xhex. That'll do.)

Manuel "Manny" Manello

The women have their wonders too: Wellesandra. Payne. No'One.

Even the minor (?) characters can't escape. Ahgony. iAm.

Well, iAm qhuinn ahgony over here. This is killing me. Does JR Ward ever give an explanation for the spellings? Are the books worth it?? This has to beat John Ringo books, at any rate....

[Grack21]

I like Chris Evans. I'm sorry.

[Contrarius]

Does JR Ward ever give an explanation for the spellings? Are the books worth it?? This has to beat John Ringo books, at any rate....

Ummmm, I don't think there's ever any spelling explanations. And they are really very bad books in several different ways, although I hang my head in shame and admit to being somewhat addicted to them anyway.

You can see my review of the series here: http://www.goodreads.../show/208531826

In that review I'm sure I give the books more credit than they deserve...but that's kinda the nature of an addiction.....

[Datepalm]

Ah, well, I'll just admit that there was a point to this lost somewhere for me, as I was thinking more in regards to things that OTHERS thought were terrible that one liked.

For a self declared literary elitist, you sometimes display surprisingly lousy basic reading comprehension. :leaving:

[Nukelavee]

Serious Caller - you went further than I...I got thru Card Sharks before I was forced to admit I'd stopped liking the entire series about the time of Typhoid Croyd, and that it was mostly an excuse for sadly devient sex scenes to get published.

[Larry.]

For a self declared literary elitist, you sometimes display surprisingly lousy basic reading comprehension. :leaving:

Or rather I was lazy and didn't read the first page? ;) Didn't realize I ever declared myself to be a "literary elitist," though. My reading tastes are too eclectic for that, I would think (weird fiction, anyone?) :P

[Edda van Heefmstra Ruston]

Or rather I was lazy and didn't read the first page? Didn't realize I ever declared myself to be a "literary elitist," though. My reading tastes are too eclectic for that, I would think (weird fiction, anyone?)

First rule of holes: when you're in one, stop digging. This post actually doesn't help.

[Nukelavee]

Naw, his post helped... yours is furthering the tangent.

[Datepalm]

Or rather I was lazy and didn't read the first page? ;) Didn't realize I ever declared myself to be a "literary elitist," though. My reading tastes are too eclectic for that, I would think (weird fiction, anyone?) :P

'weird fiction' is the genre equivelant of literary elitism. No one else actually uses that term.

Look, personally, I quite appreciate this condescending, highbrow, multilingual, metaphorical monocle wearing, on self imposed quest to improve the genre (cause the rest of us criminal-zombies-with-magic-swords, excuses-for-genre reading neanderthals certainly wont!) little zone of lit-crit you've staked out here. Really, I do, it adds variety. But! You have to own it, man. None of these whiny self doubting, self deprecating attempts to pretend to care what the bourgeoplebs think, etc. It's embarassing to watch, and nouveau riche besides, which is worse.

You're a rare specimen - a geek-snob! You've already said you've never read a bad book in your life, only books other people are insufficiently sophisticated to enjoy! Be proud of that!

[Larry.]

Uh, I don't think that term equates to what you think it does, as in "weird fiction" is related to those tales of the 19th-21st centuries that appeared in pulps like Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, and the like. Not exactly the perceived level of Harper's or The New Yorker. The other perceptions are just odd to me, considering that I realized that I didn't like (or no longer like) works such as Clancy, Goodkind, Jordan, some Martin, Brooks, Donaldson, et al. Maybe now that this is stated directly, we can move on?

[Arthmail]

But people like to pick on the elites for no other reason than that they themselves are shallow and filled with jealous rage at the sight of their betters. Look at the Occupy Wall Street. (In other words, Larry and his reading tastes and general attitude towards the unwashed masses has nothing to do with the thread. I mostly skip his posts in any case, because his reading choices are eclectic and not for everyone. I think we should all move on.)