A very old, slightly eccentric and highly esteemed scholar was saying to me once, “My dear child, why do you want to specialize in contemporary literature? If you do that, you might end up meeting writers. Believe me, there is nothing worse than that. They are all such intolerable creatures. Self-centered, in need of constant adulation and ego-stroking, peevish, and unreliable. Why don’t you join us, the Golden Age specialists, instead? All of our writers have been dead for a very long time. It’s such a pleasure to work with them.”
4 responses to “Meeting Writers”
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I know several writers personally. I regard them as mostly wonderful people, and I am glad that they are in my part of the universe. This comment by your esteemed colleague is beyond weird, unless sf and fantasy authors really are very different from other authors.
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Possibly. 🙂 I have met two writers, and was that a draining experience! Oy.
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Haha, clearly this man has made such an impression on a writer that they based an unflattering character off of him.
Maybe because he goes around calling people “my dear child”?
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Very possible. 🙂
This very scholar told us when a very very very famous writer came to visit our campus, “Of course, you can go to meet this famous writer. Just remember that I hate him and I’m the one who will give you your final grades.” We didn’t go, of course. But the professor cancelled our class and still went to meet this writer he really hated. 🙂
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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