[Sinisdar Toste]

someone named zohar fired a pretty vitriolic salvo. SE deflected it like a fucking jedi

[worry]

Yah seriously. SE left trolls out of his fantasy for a reason.

[Gothos]

well, there ARE Trell.


The plains tribes trelled the shit out of the www.nemil.gov forums.

[Illuyankas]

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

if SE credits/blames you for the magical rap battle thing I am so going to flame you on my livejournel

[Harvester]

Steven actually has the patience to respond to spiteful comments.

Quote

Zohar says: June 10, 2010 at 2:20 pm what a crock of shit! You mean if I do not like a character or a history arc I'm indifferent to the pains of the world? Dude, grow up and stop preaching. I like your books but you are not the center of the universe!




Steven Erikson says: June 10, 2010 at 8:33 pm Hi Zohar. Thanks for your observations. Much appreciated. For what it is worth, I'm not asking you to like any of my characters — you either do or you don't, and that's fine. And whether or not you care about various tragedies in this world, well, as the section made plain, I really don't feel that my words have much efficacy anyway, so I'm not really thinking about the linkage. After all, I don't know you from Adam, so whether you're working for world peace or selling guns is really outside my purview. Most of fantasy fiction is escapist, but mine isn't. The Malazan Book of the Fallen is all about compassion; accordingly, I'm not preaching, I'm pleading. There is a difference. Oh, and should I ever find the centre of the universe, mine or anyone else's, I'll be sure to let you know. That aside, glad you like the books.

Cheers
SE




Zohar says:

June 11, 2010 at 9:54 am Understood. A word of advice: stop taking yourself so fucking seriously! Fantasy is entertainment, no more, no less. Beyond that you runs the risk of turning into a Terry Goodkind clone, for the love of God.




Steven Erikson says: June 11, 2010 at 11:50 am Hmm, how's this for advice: don't give advice. The notion that entertainment can't be serious certainly defines your position on things. That I beg to differ defines mine. Shall we leave it at that?




Zohar says:

June 12, 2010 at 2:36 pm Errr, the notion that entertainment can't be serious only defines my position in THAT matter. Besides, the very notion of the word defies your arguments so yes, let's leave it at that..

Huh, the internet is such a weird place, I mean... that's really not the right way to speak to... well, anyone.

[End of Disc One]

Yeah, no one even really talks like that on message boards. I wonder what it is about comment sections that people throw out all tact?

[Ulrik]

Internet, magical swamp that turns shy nerds into heroic machos, lonely men into hot girls in lesbian chats and offers bravery to those who has none...in that damned reality. (but I do not doubt that some idiots behave this way even in reality)

[Harvester]

Reminds of an anonymous (internet) evaluation of a lecture I once attended.

The prof is a nice old fella, you know the kind, but he isn't much into technology, so he didn't know how to upload scripts onto a specific university webspace. In the end he sent them to every single student via email.

Some of the feedback he got literally was like "Bahh, you're calling yourself a professor? You're not even able to do such simple things as put material online, you're stupid."... that really struck him hard and he apologised, saying that he tried, but didn't know how to work with this website.

Seeing this very passionate and friendly old man explaining himself in front of such spiteful people was one of those moments when you can feel your heart breaking.


Interwebs needs some manners.

This post has been edited by Harvester: 29 June 2010 - 09:14 PM

[amphibian]

My impression of Zohar is that the person behind the comments is young and does not understand nuance or subtlety yet. There's the recognizance that Goodkind is too wrapped up in a deranged worldview, an adolescent view towards the possible nature and seriousness of artistic creations, the usage of a couple stock phrases and the inability to understand Erikson's intended purposes with the Snake and authorial perspective of its effect upon the reader. It gives me a sense that some building blocks of a decent person are in place, but age and life experience haven't connected the metaphorical Legos together to form a person worth interacting with.

I don't think Erikson ever said or implied that his concept of a successful Malazan series rests solely upon the Snake. He seems to really want the series to affect the way people think and feel about events and people, which have at their core kernels of history and reality - and I'd argue that he's done that pretty well without being overbearing about it. It is possible that Erikson's being a bit overdramatic with the Snake, and liking or disliking that particular storyline is up to the individual, but I don't think Zohar's equipped to fully understand or critique it.

End of Disc One, on 29 June 2010 - 06:15 PM, said:

Yeah, no one even really talks like that on message boards. I wonder what it is about comment sections that people throw out all tact?

On a messageboard, there's a bit more of a mentality of continued interaction. It's generally not a one-time, single-serving interaction in which you can be a jerk without repercussions, like most comment sections.

[MTS]

You know you've made it as a troll when people are discussing how much of an immature dick you are on another website.

[D'rek]

The latest entry is up, wherein SE speaks about some very personal matters.

[worry]

That one's brutal.

[MTS]

Wow, that was some profoundly moving stuff.

[ansible]

Damn. I honestly thought that this entry wasn't going to move me, but I was wrong.

[Spiridon_Deannis]

Heavy stuff.
And IMHO it impacted directly, even though subliminally, on his writing of TtH, which to me is much more a Steven Lundin than a Steven Erikson novel.

[Skywalker]

heartbreaking, that last post! and I think I finally understand why SE keeps saying tragedy can be cathartic

[Harvester]

worrywort, on 06 July 2010 - 08:35 PM, said:

That one's brutal.

It definitely is.

At the beginning I didn't want to read it at all*, but somehow I made it all the way through. I think I owed him that much, at least.

Heavy stuff, but thanks for this insight Steve.

*slight hypochondria

This post has been edited by Harvester: 07 July 2010 - 08:42 AM

[champ]

woah - certainly hits home

[waylander001]

Would just like to concur with most of the posts above, the responses to Zohar by Steve were well tempered and controlled considering the unjust and immature nature of them - at first i cringed when I realised steve was responding to them, but in hindsight i'm glad he did.

Aside from that his courage in writing and revealing a personal failure/hurt like he did should be commended, i'm sure we've all had moments and times like this in our lives. An invitation to compassion? Seems like a theme in his life in truth.

[Abalieno]

A new article was plublished. Just FYI

It's also awesome.