Sunday, September 03, 2006

C is for Chuck and Creative, too

Though I've criticized some parts of the book, I still would give "Haunted" a high score for originality. There were some intriguing characters, too. I can't say that I ever could anticipate what would happen next (save for, after a while, the fact that characters would die). If 10's the best score you could give this novel sheerly for ingenuinity, what would you rate it?

7 comments:

Ben said...

For ingenuity, I would give Chuck an 8. I was constantly amazed by his creativity as I read the book, but I have to deduct points for the pointlessness of his creativity. If I had rated it before discussing this with the rest of you, I might have given him a higher score.

kc said...

I'd give him a 4. I think once you sit down with the premise that you're going to write a book in which disturbing, then more-disturbing, then even-more disturbing things happen, it's not very hard to display "ingenuity." It's not real hard to think up a bunch of gross shit and write it down. I could think up a bunch of gross shit right now and make a little story out of it.

He set it up so he didn't have to show true ingenuity through characterization and dialogue and narrative and believable human situations; he could just rely on shit and piss and semen and guts to distract the reader.

Ben said...

That's a perfect example of the things you guys have said that made me change my mind from a 10 to an 8. Hee hee.

Erin said...

Oh totally, kc. I give him a 5, maybe, just because I like the writers retreat idea (which he pissed away).

Also, didn't he say somewhere that each of the stories came from some real-life story? Or was at least inspired by a true story? That knocks his creativity rating down a bit.

Matthew said...

KC, I would like to read a novel of disgusting shit written by you. I seem to remember a pretty seedy story you sent me once involving a train and a barn . . .

kc said...

That story wasn't disgusting. It was merely pornographic, and I certainly did not write it for public consumption.

george said...

I think I'd give him a 5, too. I liked the premise, but he didn't quite pull it off. And a lack of character development is where he lost lots of points from me.