Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
If the sentence I highlighted above is true, I suspect it may simply be that once successful or prolific authors get pressured to created beyond what they really want to do. But it's not a generalisation I trust. I can think of many authors where (IMO) the quality has/did not drop off; and other explanations present themselves for changing preferences:
It may sometimes be, as FizzyWater suggests, that we as readers lose some of the novelty factor of a new voice; or that, as HarryT suggested earlier, we as readers grow and change our preferences; or, as I observed of Stephen King, that the author grows and changes. (Or the many combinations and variations of factors like these.) Just because our preference has changed cannot always be ascribed to decreasing quality, however tempting we find it.
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Certainly, my preferences change over the years, but I tend to re-read a lot of books and find, for the most part, books that I really liked when I first read them, I still like them years later. There are some exceptions.
There are also some books that got a bit dated, shall we say. Heinlein had a character with the nickname Slipstick (i.e. slide rule for those of you too young to have used a slide rule for calculations). His lack of computers can be a bit jarring to modern readers. Asimov had the same issues. Heck, a lot of the writers from the 60's and 70's can be a bit dated, with their 60's and 70's approach to smoking and drinking. Pretty hard to find a current CEO who has a stocked bar in their office.
I do think that when you read books from earlier time periods, you have to let go of your modern sensibilities.