Breaking the Author/Reader Contract.

[nikolai]

The last was the re-release of the Elric Saga by WW where a major charecter (Moonglum) was written out. that was just wrong

How on earth did he manage to write out Moonglum? He's an absolutely vital part of many of the stories!

For those of you who have called me out on the Author/Reader contract. Yes, I concede the point. I do think there is something about the author destroying reader expectations, or runing a good book into the ground, or just doing something stupid. But I didn't verbalise it too well.

 

[Gomez]

I stuck through the first rape scene. The second one, though, y'know with the daughter he had from the first rape scene? That's when I decided I'd had way too much of that.

It's been a long time since I read the books. But didn't the daughter throw herself at him and he said no way?

As for a author breaking a contract, I think Robert Jordan broke his contract by not giving us a ending to the Wheel of Time series. To run a great series of books to the ground like he is doing is very very very sad!

 

[buzzard]

So, what moves by authors have totally ruined your enjoyment of a book or series you otherwise liked?

Julian May really ticked me off in the book Magnificat when she took the Metapsychic rebellion described in galaxy shaking terms in her Pliestocene Exile series, and turned it into a tempest in a teapot.
It was pathetic.
After reading The Nonborn King and The Adversary, you had the feeling the the rebels led by Marc Remillard commanded massive fleets and engaged in huge battles. Nope. Not really. So sorry.

I still re-read the Pliestocene books periodically, but the follow-up series (which are rather a prequel) sit and gather dust.

buzzard

 

[Harp]

I wouldn't say, for example, that Donaldson fails the contract. What gets set up for you at the start is pretty much what you get. You may not like that, that's fine, but it isn't the same sort of failure as a "contract violation".

I would agree with this. My expectations were not set by anything the author did early in the book, but rather reviews and opinions of other readers. So, while Donaldson broke no unwritten contract (real or perceived), he took what I thought was a rather big risk with the audience and, in my case, lost a reader. I have to think he understood the significance of the risk going into it, and I really have to respect him on that level. Not enough to finish the book, however, let alone buy the others in the series.

 

[Desdichado]

It's been a long time since I read the books. But didn't the daughter throw herself at him and he said no way?

I dunno; it's been a long time since I read them too. I do remember fairly clearly, though, that when they finally do "make it" it's because he rapes her.

As for a author breaking a contract, I think Robert Jordan broke his contract by not giving us a ending to the Wheel of Time series. To run a great series of books to the ground like he is doing is very very very sad!

Haha! Yeah, I agree with that one.

 

[Storm Raven]

I dunno; it's been a long time since I read them too. I do remember fairly clearly, though, that when they finally do "make it" it's because he rapes her.

Then you must have read a different version of The Illearth War than the one that was published, because in the version published, Covenant never "makes it" with his daughter Elena.

I still don't get the fact that people can't read a story in which the protagonist does something horrible at some point in the story. There are dozens of stories that revolve around this sort of plot point, many good, many bad, some indifferent. Whether the protagonist does something terrible isn't really a marker of quality or not.

 

[Harp]

I still don't get the fact that people can't read a story in which the protagonist does something horrible at some point in the story. There are dozens of stories that revolve around this sort of plot point, many good, many bad, some indifferent. Whether the protagonist does something terrible isn't really a marker of quality or not.

Well, I suppose I'd have to say that everybody has a different threshold for "something horrible". Depending on the horrible thing (killing an unarmed opponent, kicking puppies, not paying taxes, etc.), I may be able to work my way past it and enjoy the story. Rape, however, is a deal-killer for me; I can't watch it in movies, I can't read about it in books. And that isn't necessarily an indictment of the quality of the story or the author's ability. It's just a subject matter that I can't stomach for entertainment purposes.

 

[billd91]

I still don't get the fact that people can't read a story in which the protagonist does something horrible at some point in the story. There are dozens of stories that revolve around this sort of plot point, many good, many bad, some indifferent. Whether the protagonist does something terrible isn't really a marker of quality or not.

For me, it wasn't that the protagonist did something vile. It was that he was so Fing annoying that I couldn't get past the first book. The world, while it had a few interesting points, was nowhere near good enough for me to overcome completely disliking the main character. And life's too short to read irritating fiction for fun.

For what it's worth, I don't think the writer has a contract with the reader at all beyond "Here's my story and I hope you find it entertaining enough to have been worth the money you shelled out for it." As far as I'm concerned, that's it. Even if it's part of someone else's original continuity, I don't think major changes or shifts are a problem if they work. Midichlorians didn't really work too well. They kind of broke the tone of the series too much without adding enough value or taking off with a cool new direction.
If an author takes the plunge with both feet and swims well, then I'll play along.

 

[Cthulhudrew]

How on earth did he manage to write out Moonglum? He's an absolutely vital part of many of the stories!

That's what I'm wondering, myself. Did they replace him with Rackhir or something? (Not that that would really work, either- Moonglum's optimism is a necessary counterpoint to Elric's pessimism, and Rackhir wasn't all that pleasant.)

You'd have to rewrite a *lot* of the stories to get rid of Moonglum, and I really cannot fathom why MM would do such a thing. He's used Moony in Elric stories as recently as the comic series Multiverse, so what would possess him to write him out.

 

[Spatula]

I dunno; it's been a long time since I read them too. I do remember fairly clearly, though, that when they finally do "make it" it's because he rapes her.

I do believe you are 100% wrong about this. It's been a long time since I've read the books but my recollection matches Gomez's and Storm Raven's. Elena throws herself at Covenant and he says, not a chance. The two characters never "make it."