Elaine Cunningham interview up

Elaine said:

Every now and then some writer or game designer is bound to do something that makes you howl in anquish.

Avariel right? I hope you get the last word on that, because I would love to role play as one, or at least find out where they've been hiding.

 

Oy vay.....cant we all just get along?

 

I sincerely apologise for bringing this subject back up again, but i'm just curious. Ghengis, is your distaste of Zahn's understanding of the EU (however the EU was established at any point in its history) originating in the comments made by a character known as Mara Jade to some in a book called Vision of the Future ? Or does this distaste coming from his original work, and you've been carting it around for over a decade ?

To keep my post relevant, interesting comments Elaine made. A lot of stuff that gets debated in these forums is how we think authors view certain things, and i found it quite interesting to get to the actual source and finding out how SHE interpreted what she wrote, rather than how others do. (I admit, this comes from much frustration left over from English classes, where teachers keep telling us to look for and come up with meanings behind every little thing that occurs in the novel when it would be so much quicker and more efficient to just ASK THE AUTHOR. )

 

DaJames...
No, my distaste stems from behavior by an author, not a fictional character. In particular, my point here was 1) that author's behavior while working in a shared universe 2) that author's behavior in sharing in a shared universe. 3) that author's ability to not publically disparage Star Wars. The time frame is behavior from as far back as over a decade ago up to very recently.

The Gatherer...
"Stop the fighting everyone, we are scaring Elaine away!"

Agreed. Elaine said things about working in a shared universe which need to be commended, IMO and not lost in some silly hijacked off-topic argument.

 

Darth Ludicrous asked:

"Avariel right? I hope you get the last word on that, because I would love to role play as one, or at least find out where they've been hiding."

Gimme a break, DL: you don't really expect me to post specific wails-of-anguish-inducing, shared-world-related grievances in a public forum, do you? We could, however, discuss them in private email -- as soon as I have enough incriminating personal information about you to ensure mutual silence.

Not even tempting, is it?

Getting serious now. I have no real problem with Ghengis 12's riff on an interview quotation. The reality of the Internet is that everything you say will be repeated in a variety of contexts, often those which have little or nothing to do with your original intent. At least he didn't misquote, or drawn inferences that weren't there. It's possible that in some future incarnation of this discussion, the synopsis will be, "The nerve of that upstart, one-book, midlist, Forgotten Realms refugee for criticizing Tim Zahn!" ::shrugs:: Well, I didn't. My conscience is clear -- on this matter at least. And if Ghengis's commentary in contrued in this light, that's not his fault, as it clearly wasn't his intent.

The only way to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations is to stay off the Internet. Writers should probably avoid print interviews, too, since everything in print seems to find its way online sooner or later. Oh, and no convention appearances and book signings. People can quote things they hear you say there. Then there are all those misquotable and therefore potentially incriminating books ... Hmmm. Better not write anything at all.

You see, of course, the highly unsubtle logic at work here. Words have always been open to misinterpretation. The only way to get around this is to never speak or write ANYTHING. I consider this sort of thing to be an occupational hazard, and if it never gets any worse than this thread, I'll consider myself lucky!

Still virtually unscathed,
Elaine Cunningham

 

LOL, where's internet drama when you need him.

 

Elaine, you bought my silence with Dark Journey

 

Yeah, DL will keep things on the down-low.

 

DL can be trusted to do more than keep quiet; most of the time, he blurs the truth enough to keep people away from classified information.

 

All I know is that if in HC5 we learn that Boba Fett was the mayor of Sernpidal, I'm going to have to sick a voxyn on him.

 

Elaine -- I loved reading your book!

 

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