Baltimore Sun columnist Dave Rosenthal has penned an opinion piece on what this war of words means. I thought it was worth sharing–
Here’s a shorthand version of the King/Meyer Comment Spectrum: King is coasting on his early fame and is jealous of her success; King is rude to criticize another writer; King is a great writer. Meyer is a thesaurus-abusing hack; Meyer shouldn’t be allowed to make vampires sparkle; Meyer may not be the greatest writer, but she creates compelling stories; Meyer is a great writer and storyteller.
The truth, as the cliche goes, lies somewhere in between. For all the criticism about Meyer’s writing – and I don’t begrudge King the right to give his opinion – there’s no denying her power as a storyteller. Meanwhile, she has made millions of teens into readers, and that’s to her credit.
Hey, when I was a kid, I survived on Whoppers, Superman comics and bubble-gum music. I wasn’t going to change by being offered steak au poivre, Shakespeare and Brahms. Eventually, though, I moved on.
So, I say to the Meyer-haters: Lighten up. And consider these words of Kurt Vonnegut, supplied by commenter Robin: Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.