FicusFan said:
I must first state up front that I don't like Butcher, and think very little of him as a human being. He was/is one of those people who use the annonymity of the net to make personal attacks and flames when he is in a discussion and can't seem to win on merit. He used that propensity to bully weaker people than I on the LKH list.
That said I do like his series. It was certainly influenced by LKH that is no secret. He talked about it on the list. He met her at cons, talked to her, and she gave him encouragement. Don't know if she helped with contacts or not.
In terms of the similarity between the series I actually think that the inspiration, the use of the supernatural in the everyday, and the involvement with the local police is about all Harry Dresden and Anita Blake have in common. Harry is subject to the White Council and Anita would say she is not subject to the Vampire Council, and if push came to shove she could probably make it stick. Anita is much more coldblooded and violent than Harry will ever dream of being.
I think he (JB) has added more light humor than LKH has- hers is very snide, and though I still have the last 3 Dresden books to read, Harry hasn't become stuffed with super powers. He also seemed to be exploring more of the fantasy world in his series, whereas LKH fell in love with the weres and has never really moved on.
I think JB has managed to be inspired by LKH, but has used it to create something of his own, which is not just a clone or a wanna be.
Dear FicusFan,
I will not here point out the irony of you anonymously, personally attacking me on /this/ discussion forum with vague accusations of bullying unnamed and unspecific people on the LKH list. It's one of those things that points out itself.
Instead, I'll just say that I was never anonymous about a damned thing I wrote on that last. I will further add that I wrote a lot of loudmouthed arguments regarding various characters and discussions relating to LKH's books. While I did argue them passionately, at times, and while I did employ hyperbole in what was intended to be a humerous fashion at times, I have no idea what makes you think I had any more power than anyone else on that list.
I hadn't been published, at the time, so it wasn't like I was a big professional god figure, shouting down from the mountaintop. I hadn't even /met/ Laurell until 1999 or so. In other words, I was just one more loudmouthed, opinionated internet personage, who would probably have enjoyed the argument just for the sake of the argument even if he hadn't actually believed what he said. I had no more weight or clout on that list than anyone else. Hell, the moderator sent me to the time-out chair more than once, until I could cool off when a passionate discussion went out of hand.
Since that time, I've gone and gotten published. I'm still the same opinionated loudmouth (well, more relaxed opinions and the mouth not so loud these days, maybe, but essentially the same person), but now I'm a loudmouth whose been published, and that seems to carry more weight than I'm comfortable with for a lot of people. I have scaled way back on my argumentative posting, partly because of being busy and partly because I'm afraid that if I try to throw my weight around, I'll stomp on someone who thinks more of my opinion than they probably should, and that would be stupid and mean of me. So I try to be careful.
But there's enough loudmouth left that I had to say something about your first paragraph there.
That said: I never attempted to hide my identity from anyone. I tried never to personally attack /anyone/ in any of those heated discussions. I did my level best to attack positions and ideas, not the people who held them, though there are some folks who have trouble handling that kind of separation of person/logical argument. Certainly, there were people on that list who took a full broadside from me on a given argument and who tore me new anatomical openings as logically and politely and thoroughly as you please. They had just as much power as anyone else on that list, myself included.
That said, though, I think there are archives of the list. You'd have to go back, I dunno, maybe eight years into them to find my most active period of posting. I'm pretty sure I didn't go anonymously flaming anybody on that entire list. If I did, point it out to me, and rip me a new anatomical opening yourself. It might let some of the ego bleed out, and if you can do it then odds are I probably need someone to rub it in my face. Hell, I'd probably have to apologize or something. I've been wrong maybe one or two other times in my life. Maybe I'm wrong about this.
And also, I confess that I'm surprised at your separation of author and material. For most people, it would go more like: he's a jerk. His stuff stinks. and that would be that. I'm sorry your personal opinion of me is so negative (especially because I kinda feel I don't deserve that), but I am sincerely glad that you've enjoyed my work to one degree or another. Kinda why I write it, you know? For people to read and enjoy.
Okay, enough jumping around potentially dinosaur-like here. I wandered over your post in a bout of insomnia, and had enough LKH-list-argument reflexes still resident to make me compulsively answer.
Jim
(Butcher)
(the author)
(
[email protected])
(just so no one thinks I'm anonymous)
