Comments on: WordsDay: writers who hide, hid, have hidden, or are hiding…

By: Erik the Reader

Erik the Reader — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:09:18 +0000

B. Traven has good books, the majority of them depict the life of Mexican Indians and the injustice they suffer at the hands of Spaniards.

By: Russ Wellen

Russ Wellen — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:14:12 +0000

Sometimes people just move on to something else. Not to compare myself with such august company as the artists Jim cited, but I wrote from age 20 to 30 (sporadically) and then stopped, for the most part, until I was 46.

Re B Traven: When I was young I greatly enjoyed his book “Ghost Ship.”

By: JS O'Brien

JS O'Brien — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:18:56 +0000

On the other hand, Breece D J Pancake will always be a young man with amazing potential, and I think he would have liked it that way.

By: Euphrosyne

Euphrosyne — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:34:01 +0000

I pray every day for the continued existence and new writings of P. D. James. Actually, I don’t really care if she’s alive or dead, as long as she’s getting manuscripts to her publisher…

You know something else that chaps my patootie? When one of my favorites sends out something I enjoy less than his or her previous works. Because it’s all about me, damn it.

By: JS O'Brien

JS O'Brien — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:12:19 +0000

Yeah, I hear you guys. I’m hoping that Tom Clancy will write some more love sonnets.

I miss those.

By: Dr. Denny

Dr. Denny — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 23:28:33 +0000

Readers are selfish. For example, I want John McPhee to write more books at a faster pace. (I’m sure he can easily maintain the quality, eh?) When Rex Stout died after 80 or so Nero
Wolfe novels, I was pissed. I want more.

Readers feel cheated when talented writers vanish, cut back, etc., all as Jim has described. “How dare you not produce for us!” readers say.

If those writers weren’t so talented, their mysterious absences would not be noteworthy.

Thanks, Jim.

By: Dr. Slammy

Dr. Slammy — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:56:24 +0000

Salinger doesn’t owe me anything, of course, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling cheated. I personally can’t imagine hiding from the world this way, but at an abstract level I guess I can also imagine how fed up a genius of that caliber might get.

I suppose I’m hoping that while he stopped publishing, he kept writing, and that upon his eventual death we’ll get to see what he’s been up to for 50 years. Selfish, maybe, but what am I going to say….

By: JS O'Brien

JS O'Brien — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:07:53 +0000

Inspire us? I don’t know, Jim. It’s impossible to know why these people turned away from their art, but it could be any number of nasty things. Their art could be extremely painful to them, for instance. It could be that reaching that “zone” of concentration where everthing is working triggers emotions and memories that are too painful to bear.

Or, it could be that they are perfectionists, never able to enjoy anything they accomplish because they are not perfect, and afraid to do anything else because it will be imperfect, and a cause of pain, too.

Or it could be something else.