Skullknight.NET Podcast: Episode 35

Walter

Administrator
Staff member

Episode 35 (05/26/2013): Falcons

We discuss the Band of Falcons—old and new—our favorites, their origins, and discover some interesting thoughts on the future. Griff talks Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Walter raves on Dust, and Aazealh grumbles!
 
Awesome podcast, guys :ubik:

I agree that the addition of "a novel" to that Dan Brown's unimaginatively and sparingly titled "Inferno" is a pretentious move for an already bloatedly pretentious writer. However, it should be recognized that this wasn't always the case. Writer could actually be any number of things - a novelist, essayist, poet, playwright and so on. So once upon a time, whenever such multi-talented and multitasking writers like George Bernard Shaw, George Orwell, HG Wells or Ernest Hemingway published a book, it was actually important to add a subtitle such as "a novel", "a play" or "short story collection." So that the readers would know what kind of work to expect within the book, since writers like these specialized in many things. But for this hack writer Dan Brown who writes nothing but novels and does nothing else, it's this just plain prickish move. Though, in all fairness, his publishing company should actually be laughed at just as much as him, since they are responsible for the packaging and what ends up on the book cover.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Johnny Apples said:
for this hack writer Dan Brown who writes nothing but novels and does nothing else, it's this just plain prickish move. Though, in all fairness, his publishing company should actually be laughed at just as much as him, since they are responsible for the packaging and what ends up on the book cover.
I wouldn't say "prickish," it's just sort of embarrassing to dress up Dan Brown's tripe as something greater than it is. And that's all that really needs to be said.
 

KazigluBey

Misanthrōpos
Is Dan Brown really that bad? I've pretty much given up on modern literature for the most part so I haven't bothered reading anything he's written.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
KazigluBey said:
Is Dan Brown really that bad? I've pretty much given up on modern literature for the most part so I haven't bothered reading anything he's written.
He's not bad. He's just not exceptional, yet he's given such a huge pulpit by media. He writes standard, page-turning genre fiction, of the same quality as hundreds of authors, but tapped into a huge market by broaching Christian taboo with Da Vinci Code. I remember reading that book and was just utterly baffled by how well received it was.
 

Kompozinaut

Sylph Sword
Great podcast fellas! I spent the weekend catching up on my backlog of Skullkast (30-35) and it was great listening to the discussions again after so long, especially with this record long berserk hiatus.
 

Johnstantine

Skibbidy Boo Bop
The only Dan Brown book that is passable is Deception Point. But, even then, it's a D-.

Walter said:
He's not bad. He's just not exceptional, yet he's given such a huge pulpit by media. He writes standard, page-turning genre fiction, of the same quality as hundreds of authors, but tapped into a huge market by broaching Christian taboo with Da Vinci Code. I remember reading that book and was just utterly baffled by how well received it was.

I think this is the first time I've ever 100% agreed with you on something.
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
KazigluBey said:
Is Dan Brown really that bad? I've pretty much given up on modern literature for the most part so I haven't bothered reading anything he's written.

I've only read the Da Vinci Code from back then and I found it pretty mediocre honestly. The trivia is cool, but that's just stuff he lifted from elsewhere. And once you remove the trivia, the rest of the book (of which there is not much) is plain bad. You can tell he clumsily wrote a story around "cool lesser known facts" so he could present them in an easy-to-digest way, and I found his writing itself to be subpar.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
Gobolatula said:
Great stuff as usual guys. I guess one of these days I gotta give Dark Souls a good try.

After Zelda III, right!? :iva: Anyway, I've finally dived in to Dark Souls after a couple of false starts. I'm not yet hooked, but I've basically just begun and barely got the fixes working properly (still testing the settings I want/my PC can handle). I got past the very first area without much trouble anyway. I'm a naturally careful player where the undead are concerned. =)
 
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