Gosh, John C Wright

[blamebrampton]

Two days ago I did not know who John C Wright was.

Yesterday, in the wake of his fantastically bonkers argument on how teh gay is ruining the world, I asked Mr Brammers if he had ever heard of him. After a Google, Mr B said 'Erk. Yeah, picked up one of his books in a shop, put it back down. Shitful writer.'

Today I see that the post has been amended to discard all the comments to it and to do the internet equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and shouting 'LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!'

I'm going back to my position of two days ago, but I feel the need to say that if that's what he thinks passes for argument, then Mr B may have been overly generous in describing what Wright thinks passes for writing.

I like to think of American speculative fiction writers as being smart, talented and visionary, so I'll go back to thinking about Ursula K Le Guin, Ysabeau Wilce and Kim Stanley Robinson. MUCH nicer, and far less likely to provoke eye rolling at the stupid.

ETA: I received a reply to a comment I left on his original post. He apologised sincerely for his rudeness in the way that he wrote about the gay community. So in fairness, I should add that at least he has manners and the grace to apologise. I'd love it if the episode led him to think a bit further on the Christian message of love and charity and reflect on whether an anti-gay message fits that. Because that line of thought leads to the inevitable conclusion that it does not, since Christ's teaching was all about compassion.

Comments

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Will make note to ignore his works henceforth. Though if he's that bad a writer I probably would have anyway. It is very fortunate that most of the authors I come across whose personal views I do not care for also produce works that I do not care for. Possibly the two are connected. Bigotry and lack of logical capacity are, after all, cognitive defects, and would therefore show themselves in a novel, which does generally require, among other things, the capacity to observe, analyse and construct rational chains of events. So the inability to do this in the real world will be reflected in the fictional world as bad writing.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I can't really say. Mr Brammers is not the most temperate of critics, but as you point out, the best writing does come from people who are broader in their ability to imagine the lives of others.