We are all prone to silliness sometimes but writing
an entire book that is silly shows some serious commitment. And when the author
has a great deal of respect in society as a serious and gifted writer,
that just compounds the silliness. But, as these examples show, all
authors -- even good ones -- fall prey to the silly bug:
1. H.P. Lovecraft
Considered one of the masters of horror and
fantasy, Lovecraft wrote deeply pessimistic
and cynical, works challenging the values of Enlightenment, Romanticist, and
Christian humanism. Lovecraft’s protagonists usually achieve the
mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing
the horror of ultimate reality. But then, he also wrote Sweet Ermengarde, the Street, and the Terrible Old Man,
which is a whimsical farce (and not a very good one, either) about money. It
was a silly tale about buried gold and was pretty pointless.
2. Nostradamus
A name familiar to conspiracy
theorists and some scholars, Nostradamus is well-known for his predictions
which some say accurately warned of Hitler, the Kennedy assassination and
even 9/11. However, Nostradamus also wrote a pretty damn popular book of jam
recipes. Yes, jam recipes. Not only that, but this "cookbook" became
a bestseller (back in 1555). Really.
3. Benjamin Franklin
This statesman is not just a
legendary founding father but also one of the authors of the Declaration of
Independence. His autobiography was yet another influential work that
remains standard reading for leaders and policy-makers to this day. However, he
also wrote a short treatise titled Fart Proudly,
which was an argument for how scientific resources should be used to find a way
to make farts smell more like perfume since farting is necessary and yet emits
an unpleasant odor. To be fair, he wrote this as a joke and a reaction to the
ridiculous and pretentious pseudo-academic atmosphere he encountered in Europe
where noted scholars were supposedly arguing and debating the silliest
things.
4. Arthur Conan Doyle
This writer introduced Sherlock
Holmes to the world -- perhaps the best known literary detective ever. His
stories were clever and sharp and reflected a level of intellect and creativity
well beyond that of most writers. And this is why it just seems so impossible
that Doyle suddenly started believing in fairies and was one of the
people duped b the famous Cottingley
fairies hoax. This was the man who created Sherlock Holmes and
yet he believed that the photos of two teenage girls playing with what were
obviously cardboard cut-outs of cartoon fairies were absolutely real. Cementing
his downfall was the fact that he then wrote a whole book titled The Coming
of the Fairies about why these fairies are real. As we all
know, the children themselves admitted to faking the whole thing later.
5. Roger Ebert
Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Ebert set the standard for film and movie reviews, and many films either rose or fell based on his assessment of them. He was a gifted writer and journalist who was not afraid to go against the grain in his writing. This is why it remains a mystery as to why he wrote the screenplay for the movie Who Killed Bambi? This aborted film, which was to star the Sex Pistols, had little in the way of an actual plot and instead contained some very depraved scenes (such as showing Sid Vicious shooting up heroin with his mother and then having sex with her). Thankfully, the film never happened.
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