[ SECRET POST #6085 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6085 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.



























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 34 secrets from Secret Submission Post #870.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know this author, but I am now reminded of an article written about 20 years ago that speculated Agatha Christie had dementia. It was based on a study of changes in her written vocabulary compared to a writer (Iris Murdoch) known to have had Alzheimer's. When I read the article I was reminded of the experience of reading one of her last books, Posters of Fate, and thinking it definitely read like she had a serious cognitive decline, because it was sadly incoherent.

So I can't speak for this situation but it's sometimes possible to tell there is something going on with an author. OP is bot necessarily imagining things.

[(Anonymous)]

i will say that reading Hallowe'en Party after a couple of her earlier works i was struck by how her writing had declined, but as someone who's worked a lot with dictation/transcription/etc it landed more to me as an older lady dictating her words and then...just not really editing/having them edited. Definitely less varied vocab (which happens a lot regardless of age--people who aren't used to oral storytelling often aren't able to add the same amount of variation as they do in writing), less description, and just so much repetition of the same phrases/ideas over and over. Still absolutely could be due to some sort of decline (lacking strength/cognition to write/type etc).

It might be a slight case of bias--someone looking for signs of cognition decline v. someone more used to the pitfalls of dictation. It's not really possible to truly say but it is always interesting (and frequently sad) when you can really identify declines in a writer's work.

I will say (and this is pettier and in reference to a work-that-will-go-unnamed) that particularly well-known/celebrated authors can sometimes be given way more leeway by editors in their later books. The unnamed work i'm reading right now needed SO much cutting of repetitive/extraneous stuff and ended up being a brick. (Def. not saying this was the case for Christie OR Pierce, just...a mini-whine).

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT-- the article I spoke of involved an in-depth vocabulary analysis, whole the book I am thinking of, Postersn Of Fate, read like the author had started three different classic Agatha Christie plots and spliced them together without noticing. I wasn't aware when I picked the book up that it was one of the last she had written. I read it and thought, This reads like it was written by someone suffering a major cognitive decline. Your reaction to that book might have been very different but I found it a very sad and upsetting experience. I did not have the same reaction to Halloween Party at all.

[(Anonymous)]

DA I have never read any Pratchett further than Snuff. I could see what he was trying to do but his voice died before he did and it hurt SO much.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh yeah. That was so sad to read.