When Authors Go Bad!

[psychotick]

Hi,

Odd sort of question. But I've just finished publishing Samual on CreateSpace and thought I needed to do something to relax. So I watched some of the X-files. And I came across a thing I had completely forgotten. The Smoking Man - AKA Cancer Man - and the baddie, is a failed author / frustrated author. And that set my mind to wondering. How many other authors in fiction go bad?

I mean we all know that priests take up their vocation purely so they can become maverick detectives - Father Brown / Grantchester / Brother Cadfael. And we also know that every mystery writer from Jessica Fletcher to Richard Castle secretely yearns to take the same path. But other than The Smoking Man I can't think of many fictional writers busting out to become master criminals etc. Why? Are we too dull as a group?

So that's the question to open with. And the one to follow with is what would you guys think of a writer character who branched out into homicide (sci fi style of course), mobsterism, theft etc? Because I have a funny feeling you could actually make an interesting character that way. (By day he writes murder, by night he practices it!) Damn! The book just about writes itself!

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

What about Stephen King's Misery? I mean, this author's got this great fan who nurses him back to health, encourages him to find his muse and even pays for his writing supplies. How does he repay her? By trying to sneak away, then getting her killed (different ways between the book and the film, but still). And not only that, but he's responsible for the death of the sheriff. Does he show any remorse? Not a shred.

Wasn't the guy in The Shining a writer?

Maybe it's all autobiographical and King is a mild-mannered writer by day and homocidal maniac by night!

Because I have a funny feeling you could actually make an interesting character that way. (By day he writes murder, by night he practices it!)

Yeah, it sounds interesting, I reckon. You could take it a step beyond Castle and go for a really cheesy tag line: "Sometimes the pen isn't enough. Sometimes you need a sword, too."

 

[Vaz]

Yeah I was going to recommend The Shining, author goes nuts and tries to kill family.

 

[Venusian Broon]

It's a real life example and not of an author - but closely related I feel; Hitler was famously intent on being a great artist and architect when he was young.

Perhaps, if he had any talent and had been accepted by Vienna Academy of Fine Art, that would have stopped World War 2 and genocide.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Stephen King has form in this area; Secret Window from Four Past Midnight, and The Dark Half. Both deal with writers in a fugue state sort of.

pH

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Interesting thoughts. Hadn't thought of the Shining, probably because his being an author wasn't really the focus of the film, just the set up for the plot. Besides who would pick Jack as an author?! Really though I was thinking more mastermind criminal than author gone nuts. And I do think we are woefully under-represented in this class. (Should we start a protest movement?!)

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I thought we were going to talk about actual authors that went bad.

 

[Nick B]

Me too, like if JK Rowling decided to spend her fortune making a giant death laser

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

All I can think of among living authors going bad is Jeffrey Archer - and perjury and perverting the course of justice just isn't up there with "sharks with freaking lasers!"

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Software "Authors"?
There is a file system that has gone out of favour on Linux.

I don't think "Cordwainer Smith" went bad, but his real life job was intriguing compared to David Cornwell (John Le Carré), or Ian Fleming.

Some authors had nearly as colourful lives as their book characters (Leslie Charteris, Jack London) or have tried IRL to imitate their fiction (Clive Cussler collects vintage cars and runs a real "NUMA", set up from his book income.)
Or Ian's brother Peter Fleming, who wrote a few travelogues and may have been a field agent / spy.
Or Arthur Ransome got a yacht (named after his character Nancy I think?) and married some Russian Revolutionary Leader's secretary.

 

[Dan Jones]

Not exactly "bad" but there are plenty of examples of authors being imprisoned for dissent or other malpractices of the day. Illuminaries such as:

Oscar Wilde
Thomas Malory
Daniel Defoe
Dostoevsky
Nelson Algren (jailed for nicking a typewriter! Hell yeah )
Miguel de Cervantes
O.J Simpson (!! - does he count?!)

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Writers Treated badly:
Evelyn Sharpe started by writing fairy tales and School Stories. She was sent to prison for agitation for the Suffragettes, had her typewriter seized by by Government for non payment of tax which was part of the Suffragette protest, inspired by American revolt, "no taxation without representation",(Don't know when the rule about "tools of the trade" can't be seized came in) and as a result of seeing life in Prison this woman from a privileged background became an ardent socialist.

No shortage in latter half of twentieth century of writers being oppressed in China and Russia. It's still a dangerous occupation in Russia and China.

Other Writers
Erskine Childers wrote the wonderful "Riddle of the sands" and was shot as a traitor by the Government during WWI, though not for his writing.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

There's Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter...
It's a long time since I read it but wasn't Gulliver the writer of his story and didn't he do some quite dark things?

 

[Ray McCarthy]

wasn't Gulliver the writer of his story

Certainly the writer of Gulliver suggested people should eat babies.

 

[MemoryTale]

If memory serves there was a Dr. Who bad guy who was a writer, albeit unwittingly. He'd been plugged into a realm called the land of fiction where all the fictional things lived.

...The final battle of that story was epic.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

realm called the land of fiction where all the fictional things lived

Shades of Jasper fforde
Thursday Next etc

 

[MemoryTale]

Shades of Jasper fforde
Thursday Next etc

This was a 70's episode, so it's more like Fforde has shades of Dr. Who

 

[Juliana]

Really though I was thinking more mastermind criminal than author gone nuts.

That would be a fun read.

Erskine Childers wrote the wonderful "Riddle of the sands"

A must-read for anyone who likes spy fiction. This one is kind of the grandaddy of them all. Sort of Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons meets John le Carré.