What about the OPPOSITE of the Orson Scott Card problem?

[xiphias]

So, we talk a lot about the uncomfortable situation when there's a work you like but you dislike the creator. I think a majority of the people I know really like ENDER'S GAME, and really don't so much like OSC.

I was thinking about the opposite situation, though. Piers Anthony is one of the world's truly kind, decent human beings -- a real mensch. He is a paragon of being kind and supportive of his fans -- a kid ran away from home and showed up on his doorstep once, and he spent a day just listening to the kid, understanding him, and letting him know that "it gets better", which was enough for the kid to go back home, tough it out until he was old enough to get away from his toxic-but-not-bad-enough-to-make-the-foster-system-a-good-choice family, and the kid is now a reasonably happy, well-adjusted adult. He wrote hundreds of letters to a paralyzed twelve-year-old girl who was a fan of his, because her mother thought that letters from her favorite author might give her a reason to live. He simply is a truly righteous and good person.

I've often said that one of the best things for a socially-ostracized weird teenager is an adult who lived through the same thing but now has a happy life, who can tell the kid that, yes, they're RIGHT that their life sucks, but that, if they can just hold out, life will STOP sucking and become actually pretty darned awesome. Through his chatty, personal Author's Notes, Anthony has been such a person for thousands of kids. I can't even estimate how much good he's done in the world.

And I really don't like his books. There are so many better YA authors out there.

But, y'know, he DOES represent almost a full shelf on our bookcase, and we're NOT weeding it, even if we never read it. He meant so much to our teenage selves that we can't really get RID of the stuff, can we? He's a friend, even though we've never met him.

(Does anyone know if he does go to cons?)

Comments

[bkwrrm-tx.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. I loved his early Xanth novels, and the Incarnations of Immortality series got me through a chunk of Shay's first transplant (a friend sent us a package and I read them to her) but his latest stuff (last decade or so?), I'm just not enjoying it. I do still get them from the library because I *want* to like them again. :-(

I don't think he does cons, though.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

I gave away a bunch of my old Piers Anthony books-- and I had EVERYTHING (up to about 1990, anyway). I figured that his books were important to me when I was a kid and during high school, and that was great then, but I'm not going to re-read them, and I don't assume my kids want to read them (or if they _do_ they should find him themselves and not have them be painted with the "dad's books" stigma). And if some kid find a bunch of them at Goodwill somewhere and is really excited, so much the better!

I kept some of his weird old books, Orn and Chthon and a couple of others I enjoyed and want to hang onto for sentimental reasons, and I kept the postcard he sent me when I wrote him a letter, but the rest? I hope they found a good home with somebody who was really thrilled to read them.

EDITED: Oh yeah! I gave them to my high school library, who put them on their "books for a dollar" shelf! (And probably gave some away, because I know the librarian and she wouldn't say no to a kid who wanted to read.) That is really the ideal situation I think.

[pameladean]

Piers Anthony used to go to cons, particularly Worldcon and World Fantasy, but I don't know if he still does. I'm not going to many myself these days, so it's harder to keep track.

P.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Some of his stuff is truly repulsive, and I stopped reading his books because I couldn't read the ones that aren't without thinking of the ones that are.

But yeah. He does amazing fan service.

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

*nod* Exactly this.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Sure. IN THE BARN is considered to be one of the most nauseating stories ever written -- and I actually consider it more forgivable than some of his other stuff, because it's SO over-the-top horrible that it's obviously on purpose. I could, if I tried, remember a lot of other things that bothered me even more, but I've blocked them out, and have no desire to unblock them.

He has three kinds of works: 1. really disturbingly sexist horrible stuff which may or may not involve violent rape; 2. YA-ish stuff that's pretty much dashed off and has no nutritional value; 3. stuff that's actually kind of good, but may well be tinged with some of #1 or #2 -- and in REALLY disturbing cases, tinged with BOTH #1 and #2.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

There was, uh... Firefly? The one where defeating the monster involved somehow-consensual sex with a five-year-old girl? That one was quite the repulsive piece of work.

His old short stories were in the "dangerous Visions" vein, which I think is where I first read In The Barn. That was pretty much an entire series of anthologies of deliberately shocking fiction, most of it quite good.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I liked Macroscope enough - ooh, thirty-five years ago? - that I ordered the US edition all the way from the US, because the UK edition was abridged; and I've been thinking about rereading it, just to see. And I lovedy-loved his silly intergalactic dentist novel, Prostho Plus.

The worst thing about having been that much of a fan way back when is that I hate the way I flinch whenever I see a new Piers Anthony, and lament the writer that he used to be and the writer he should have become...

[alandd.livejournal.com]

I have most of his older ones too, but haven't read many in the last 10-15 years. I see the point you're making & agree it makes sense.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

I did not read any Piers Anthony when I was ten. Or even twelve.

I can not think of any piece of his writing that did not strike me as ridiculously sexist. Even for the time - and I was still fairly young when they were coming out, and much better at being oblivious.

Which is not to say he isn't a great guy. But I'm seeing a lot of "Oh, he used to be so much better...!" And... really?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that he used to be so much better because we used to be younger...

The CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS series doesn't interest me much, but my nephew used to love it. Now he's a bit older and he doesn't like it as much.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Imo the quality of Xanth really did go down around about QUESTION QUEST. Perhaps because Anthony was not as young as he used to be, and he was running out of ideas, and (as he sometime pretty much stated) he'd got tired of the series.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

Well, with Xanth anyway, the situation isn't exactly opposite to OSC's. For all we know, OSC may be very nice to his fans and to individuals he meets. And Anthony doesn't do real life activism against women, does he?

To me, early Xanth is a curate's egg where the good stuff is so good that it's worth dealing with the bad stuff. Mid-Xanth, where he was trying to correct some obvious parts of the sexism, was losing its edge on other things. Maybe a sexist muse's revenge, maybe not.

Haven't read his other books, as they all smell creepy.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

This past weekend's This American Life had a wonderful segment with that kid, now grown, and Piers Anthony. thanks for reminding me I was planning to send a link to my dad, who is the same age.

[l33tminion]

I really enjoyed Apprentice Adept and Incarnations of Immortality when I was a teenager. Never got into Xanth, though.

But I really liked a lot of pulp.