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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3971 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 19, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

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Bouncing checks?

Shit, I’m as annoyed as the next guy that Rothfuss is running D&D campaigns or whatever instead of publishing more. But I didn’t buy his nonexistent third book yet, just the first two.

I suppose there’s an argument that those first two are devalued, and I wouldn’t have bought them if I expected the series to remain unfinished…That’s certainly now how I thought of it at the time. Perhaps my lifetime of internet fiction has raised my tolerance for unfinished stories.

I’ve been so burned by Pat and George I refuse to start series now unless they’re finished.

Bouncing checks?

I first hear this phrase used to describe the ending of Lost (the TV show)--the writers wrote a bunch of narrative checks that failed to clear, or words to that effect. I thought it was apt. I think, as long as Rothfuss and Martin fail to deliver on their promises, they are meaningfully blameworthy. I appreciate Neil Gaiman coming to Martin's defense ("George Martin is not your bitch" or whatever he said) but the only reason I have to respect Gaiman's opinion on the matter is that Gaiman finishes what he starts, so his white knighting here turns out to be a bit self-undermining. Whatever people want to say about muses or mental health or whatever--I'm not saying Martin deserves the electric chair, or even a small fine. I'm saying he and Rothfuss are morally on par with people who have written checks while failing to deposit sufficient funds for those checks to clear.

Perhaps my lifetime of internet fiction has raised my tolerance for unfinished stories.

Perhaps! But also it's a very small thing, in a world of big things. I rarely think about it, except in the context of people finishing books. Most writers don't--new writers, yes, of course, but also, often, successful authors who clearly could (they've done it before!), if they actually cared enough to try.

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