November Wrting Challenge: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

[Mistral]

Who wrote "Dreadnaught!" ? Don't have access to my books right now.....

But "in the style of" would be a parody in and of itself-the novel was sooooooooo bad....

[Count Zero]

That would be Diane Carey, who lends herself well to any parody (just insert a libertarian rant here, random sailing terminology there, add a bit of Kirk worship and you're done).

[JustKate]

I am going to have to sit this one out - I have a LOT of writing to do in November, but alas, it's all very strictly work related.

I am now a-dyin' to see Nerys' parody, though. A-dyin'. Diane Carey would be pretty fun, too - I recently read four of her five Romulan-themed books, and while they were interesting and pretty well-written, too (enough so that I will probably get around to reading the fifth one fairly soon, even though I found a certain amount to annoy me in the first four)...let's just say that the phrase "Kirk worship" is extremely appropriate.

The early Trek writers, those who wrote back in the Great Drought of 1970-1979 (novels which some people, of whom I am not one, refer to as the "classic" novels), ought to be extremely parody-worthy as well. The writing isn't bad, per se (well, some of it is), but the plots are sooooooooo fanboyish, or even downright gushy. That's my recollection, at least, though I admit that I haven't read them a very long time and in fact haven't read all of them. But the reason I haven't read them in years and the reason I haven't read all of them is because I disliked them so much. They were, in fact, what drove me away from Trek lit for many years.

[Count Zero]

I think you're talking about the Rihannsu books, JustKate, who were written by Diane Duane, not Carey.
I haven't read them yet, so I had no idea there was Kirk worship in them. I only ever read 'Dark Mirror' by her which I thought was great (but I was a teenager back then, so take this assessment with a grain of salt).

TrekLit used to be a very mixed bag until quite recently, so I'm always wary of reading the old books. There are also new series I'm wary of. The funny thing is that I originally got into TrekLit after Enterprise was cancelled because I wanted to read ENT books. But the first two I read (the Daedalus duology) and what I've read about the relaunch books has put me off that particular book line.
(I follow Titan, Vanguard and the TNG relaunch instead plus some standalone books, I'm currently reading my way through the DS9 relaunch, but got sidetracked by Shatner's Collision Course, which is strangely addictive)

[JustKate]

Ah, yes, thanks - you're right, of course. (Although I am apparently not the only person to make this mistake since when I googled "Diane Carey" - which I did before I posted - I got hits for the Rihannsu books. She must have been simply listed on the same pages as Diane Duane.)

But yes, I would say there is a lot of Kirk worship, or at least a very strong tendency to put Kirk waaaaaaaay up on a pedestal. It was really annoying and detracted a lot from my enjoyment of those books.

[Count Zero]

JustKate wrote:

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Ah, yes, thanks - you're right, of course. (Although I am apparently not the only person to make this mistake since when I googled "Diane Carey" - which I did before I posted - I got hits for the Rihannsu books. She must have been simply listed on the same pages as Diane Duane.)

The two are often confused.

JustKate wrote:

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But yes, I would say there is a lot of Kirk worship, or at least a very strong tendency to put Kirk waaaaaaaay up on a pedestal. It was really annoying and detracted a lot from my enjoyment of those books.

I wouldn't have expected that, since I was under the impression the books were pretty exclusively about Romulan society.

[JustKate]

^ Nope. They flipflop back and forth between Romulus and the Federation. There are, I would guess, quite a few more words about Romulus because of all the background she had to include (and invent), but there is a lot about Our Crew, too. The parts about Romulus and Romulans, I enjoyed a lot, for the most part. The Federation parts were a lot weaker, IMO. Many of the characters just didn't ring true - particularly Kirk.

[Nerys Ghemor]

JustKate wrote:

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Ah, yes, thanks - you're right, of course. (Although I am apparently not the only person to make this mistake since when I googled "Diane Carey" - which I did before I posted - I got hits for the Rihannsu books. She must have been simply listed on the same pages as Diane Duane.)

But yes, I would say there is a lot of Kirk worship, or at least a very strong tendency to put Kirk waaaaaaaay up on a pedestal. It was really annoying and detracted a lot from my enjoyment of those books.

The funny thing was this. Duane's Kirk came off as a lot more deserving than the series' version of Kirk. I would say that in a lot of ways, she created a more palatable, idealized version of him. Still, I love her books--in a lot of ways they're more readable to me than TOS is watchable.

As for the PAD parody...I'm not 100% sure I'm up to this yet. I've got a framing story ready that MIGHT even be able to stand on its own--but I'm not sure it'll be enough.

Plus, even reading summaries of PAD's work turned out to be a godawful, dire task and I'm not sure how much I could take of actually trying to write anything like him.

Perhaps, instead, I could use the framing story and write the thoughts that go into our author-ego's decision to write. The only problem is, I don't want it to be taken as a personal attack, despite my utter and total dislike and contempt for PAD's work and the failure of his editors to properly supervise him.

[JustKate]

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

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The funny thing was this. Duane's Kirk came off as a lot more deserving than the series' version of Kirk. I would say that in a lot of ways, she created a more palatable, idealized version of him. Still, I love her books--in a lot of ways they're more readable to me than TOS is watchable.

See, that's the big problem for me: Yes, he is more deserving - I am not and never have been a big fan of Kirk (though I am of TOS in spite of this) - but the reason he's more deserving is that Duane has idealized him sooooooo much. I'd go so far as to say he's been sanitized. There has to be some space between total horndog and Saint James the Pure, and I wish she could have found it.

Nerys Ghemor wrote:

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Perhaps, instead, I could use the framing story and write the thoughts that go into our author-ego's decision to write. The only problem is, I don't want it to be taken as a personal attack, despite my utter and total dislike and contempt for PAD's work and the failure of his editors to properly supervise him.

If you write it, I'll enjoy reading it, but I don't know, Nerys. It sounds hard. Parody - or so it seems to me, but I must admit that my experience is in reading it, not writing it - is usually best if the writer relishes lampooning the source material mercilessly or has at least a slight fondness for the source material.

Edit: But it would be a worthwhile exercise to try, I think, assuming you can get past your loathing!

[PSGarak]

Thor Damar wrote:

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Oh yeah I personally have two or three different authors in mind for a tribute act...

(seeing a Lovecraftian style ST fanfiction would have been...cool and disturbing)

I did something like that here. The Thing in the Corner.

[Garm Bel Iblis]

All right I gave it a whirl...


http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.ph...84#post3575884

[Rush Limborg]

I've always considered myself something of a PAD apprentice--if only because of the generally rapid pace of my scenes--and the intense emotions I have the characters go through.

I take my characters more seriously, though.

Just sayin.

[Kaziarl]

Well, i'm about half way done with mine. Still have my fingers crossed about getting it done in time; and typed up for that matter since my computer kicked the bucket. Thank goodness there's no word limit for this one though...