And I can’t even update my blog every day. 159 sure seems like an incredible number, but after doing some digging, I realize it’s just minor league. Isaac Asimov is said to have written over 400 books and a Sao Paulo writer by the name of Jose Carlos Ryoki Inoue is credited with 1,050 novels (among 40 or so pseudonyms). After digging even deeper, I found numerous examples of these prolific authors, many with multiple (and by multiple I mean A LOT) pseudonyms. Are robots behind this mass-quantity writing phenomenon? Lots of drugs and Nick at Nite? Details are sketchy at best, but it certainly seems odd to now say that, relatively speaking, Joyce Carol Oates’ offerings are meager indeed.
I guess this proves, once again, that it really isn’t the shape or size, but how many times you can make it rise.
12 Responses
robots?Yes. Nora
robots?
Yes. Nora Robot.
Actually — and this is just my theory — there’s probably a sweatshop somewhere full of monkeys with typewriters churning out sci-fi and romance novels and romantic sci-fi and books by Joyce Carol Oates.
What gave us away???
What gave us away???
That’s what I always
That’s what I always say…
How do they do it? I remember reading an interview with Isaac Asimov in which he said that every morning, he got up early, had breakfast, and shuffled over to the typewiter and wrote until lunch time. I forget what he did after lunch, but probably he wrote some more. I assume he also ate dinner. I think I’m seeing a pattern here. If I eat well, I can write a lot of books!
That’s not writingit’s
That’s not writing
it’s typing.
Whatever gets the job done,
Whatever gets the job done, old chap.
Frank Zappa SyndromeThis
Frank Zappa Syndrome
This reminds me of when I used to buy Frank Zappa albums. Until I realized he was putting out a new one like every two months. Sometimes he’d put out two or three or five album sets … they just kept coming. He kept this up until cancer finally stopped him.
Anyway, pretty funny … even though I’ve never seen anybody reading any one of these 159 novels, which must mean something.
Right on, Truman.
Right on, Truman.
I’d never even heard of the
I’d never even heard of the woman before I read that USA Today article.
Nora who?
Now, Frank Zappa I’ve heard of…
Good point.Here’s an idea:
Good point.
Here’s an idea: Put out more books than anyone, then get in the Guinness Book of World Records, and then appear on talk shows, and then write a book about that, which people would buy (because Oprah would write the into), and thus be catapulted to fame. This would require a lot of up-front capital, of course.
Pretty funny? Very funny.
Pretty funny? Very funny. Anyway, just because you’ve not seen anyone reading them, I’m sure you know a lot of people who do. They’re pretty popular commercially, although I don’t know that they’re really classic literature. Also, probably not the type of thing that 40 year old men would be carrying around.
It terrifies me that people
It terrifies me that people can eat, sleep, and use the restroom all while simultaneously writing.
Everyone needs a break and we all have bills to pay (at least I do). Don’t know how one could fit creative writing into every moment of their day without succumbing to being mundane or burnt out. I guess that’s why we have so much circumlocuted, repetitious, clich
1:1 Is Still Batting A
1:1 Is Still Batting A Thousand
More impressive and inspiring, for me anyway is the record of Nelle Harper Lee, who was Capote’s research assistant in 1959 during his “In Cold Blood” period.
In 1960 she published her first and only novel; in 1961 “To Kill A Mockingbird” won the Pulitzer Prize. Slammed a long, long ball her first and only time up to the plate.
She never wrote again I’m told. But she did get to meet and befriend Mr and Mrs. Gregory Peck!
She’s now 80 years old and cares for her ailing sister somewhere in California.