....except that where you describe an author's obligation to story, the opposing case argues an obligation to character -- and therefore argues that the paradigm-shift in the Anita Blake books arose because the author forced her heroine down a path that the character, as she'd previously been established, would never have taken.
My story rubric does include character, plot, structure--all the components. The character is a creation of LKH's, and a part of the story, and it's clear to me that she feels that the character has grown and changed in a way that's natural to the character.
And there's nothing wrong with disagreeing with her view. To be honest? I hated the choice she made at the end of Narcissus, but I didn't feel that it was out of the blue or unreasonable; I found it uninteresting.
There's more of an argument to be made in the Holmes case, because that character is in every way in the public domain; it's not a character that King created out of whole cloth.
However:
In so doing, they afforded viewers/readers a significant degree of respect -- something first-gen Anita Blake fans might argue that LKH failed to do when she paradigm-shifted that series.
This is the crux of the entitlement issue for me, stated in a different way. I think an argument can be made--you have :) -- for this, but it is an entitlement issue. Wanting respect for your affection and devotion is natural. Being unwilling to be bound to continue in a direction that you, as the creator, feel is the wrong one, is also natural. I don't feel LKH owes me anything. I enjoyed her early books. I didn't enjoy her later ones. I don't feel her shift in story is a signal of disrespect to me, and since it's entirely her creation, I can't feel it's an act of disrespect to her character.
One can argue that you lose your fans if you offend them enough. If she wasn't selling, that would be a totally practical and pragmatic argument. But she is. So it's clear that she still has a large fan base that doesn't share this view. If we depend on the market for correction, as we increasingly do, the market isn't offering any incentive to correct. Ergo what she personally feels is the correct direction for a character that's entirely of her own creation is clearly the correct direction for many.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-10-12 09:47 pm (UTC)My story rubric does include character, plot, structure--all the components. The character is a creation of LKH's, and a part of the story, and it's clear to me that she feels that the character has grown and changed in a way that's natural to the character.
And there's nothing wrong with disagreeing with her view. To be honest? I hated the choice she made at the end of Narcissus, but I didn't feel that it was out of the blue or unreasonable; I found it uninteresting.
There's more of an argument to be made in the Holmes case, because that character is in every way in the public domain; it's not a character that King created out of whole cloth.
However:
In so doing, they afforded viewers/readers a significant degree of respect -- something first-gen Anita Blake fans might argue that LKH failed to do when she paradigm-shifted that series.
This is the crux of the entitlement issue for me, stated in a different way. I think an argument can be made--you have :) -- for this, but it is an entitlement issue. Wanting respect for your affection and devotion is natural. Being unwilling to be bound to continue in a direction that you, as the creator, feel is the wrong one, is also natural. I don't feel LKH owes me anything. I enjoyed her early books. I didn't enjoy her later ones. I don't feel her shift in story is a signal of disrespect to me, and since it's entirely her creation, I can't feel it's an act of disrespect to her character.
One can argue that you lose your fans if you offend them enough. If she wasn't selling, that would be a totally practical and pragmatic argument. But she is. So it's clear that she still has a large fan base that doesn't share this view. If we depend on the market for correction, as we increasingly do, the market isn't offering any incentive to correct. Ergo what she personally feels is the correct direction for a character that's entirely of her own creation is clearly the correct direction for many.