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The fact that they chose Dan Brown of all people to do a writing workshop does not inspire confidence.
by psychometry 6y ago
The fact that they chose Dan Brown of all people to do a writing workshop does not inspire confidence.
- volkk 6y agodepends on how you view writing. he might not be your average book nerd's cup of tea, but his astonishing success is nothing to balk at. i love all sorts of authors, and maybe he might not write the best literary works of art, its entertaining as shit and i devoured his books in my teenage years.
- lovegoblin 6y agoWho? The renowned author Dan Brown?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- kleiba 6y agoWell, you could either go the route of a Nobel laureate in literature that you've never heard of, or for a guy with commercial success. From Wikipedia: His books have been translated into 57 languages and, as of 2012, have sold over 200 million copies. Three of them, Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code, and Inferno, have been adapted into films. It all depends on what your goals are. No-one is forced to take any of the offered classes.
- runevault 6y agoThey have a LOT of writing classes. Neil Gaiman, David Mamet, Judy Blume, Joyce Carol Oates, Billy Collins, Margaret Atwood... Yes they have Dan Brown, but if you want to study writing there are some fantastic ones (Gaiman, Mamet, JCO, Billy Collins, Balldacci were all fantastic)
- ulisesrmzroche 6y agoI haven’t seen the other ones but the Margaret Atwood and Neil Gaiman ones are great.
- oh_sigh 6y agoYou don't sell 80 million copies by mistake.
- aksss 6y agodoesn't make you a good teacher, only an exceptional anecdote. Which has value, but it is what it is.
- oh_sigh 6y agoBeing a highly lauded author doesn't make you a good teacher either. The best writing teachers are probably relatively nameless individuals out there at various colleges and universities, or maybe even high schools. But no one is going to pay for a "masterclass" from them.
- aksss 6y agoSorry, that was exactly my point. And to your "no one is going to pay", that's pretty much exactly what The Great Courses Plus subscription is doing - using relatively nameless individuals in academia to do real teaching. People (including me) pay for it.
- mrlala 6y agoI kind of suck at reading but I can whip through a Dan Brown book fully entertained and not constantly struggling. But then I try some "real authors" as you would say and I have a bit of a hard time. So which author is better? Not necessarily the one that is more difficult to read...
- psychometry 6y agoFrankly it sounds like you just need more experience reading literature.
- mrlala 6y agoI'm not disagreeing with you, but on the other hand.. why? Not sure I understand why something more difficult to read is supposed to be 'better' from a technical standpoint.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y agoWhy? He is an extremely successful author (whose success is not due to gimmicks but literally because of his books being read and loved by millions). I'd love to learn from him.
- psychometry 6y agoFine, learn how to sell books from him. Just don't learn how to write.
- GoodJokes 6y agoLol, his success is a gimmick. Are this many SDEs actually huge marks? WOW