# Has Jean Auel (Clan of the Cave Bear) lost it as an author? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 29, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102 "2012-01-29T19:09:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/61 "2012-02-05T15:28:39Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Oh, I think I hurt myself from laughing… > ~VOW Oh jebus, me too. What a way to wake up. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/62 "2012-03-01T03:04:49Z")
I’ve actually enjoyed the series but am a bit reluctant to read the new sequel due to all the hate even from people who liked the earlier books. Does anyone actually like it? If so, then I missed that above. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/63 "2012-03-01T03:58:09Z")
I also am reading the first book for the first time a little because of this thread (my college roommate said she learned all about sex from _The Valley of the Horses_ as a child) and good god, what a clunky damned book. I got it from the library, thank goodness. I’m sort of continuing to read it and sort of rereading a not-amazing Barbara Hambly book that I read as a teenager and thinking “how exactly did one of these authors become a multibazillionaire for this her “best” book and the other not?” ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/64 "2012-03-01T15:52:10Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > Another point I wonder about is the (let’s not say implied racism, let’s just say unfounded assumption) in Auel’s novels that Neanderthals would have been dark-haired, dark-skinned and brown-eyed, wheras the modern and advanced Cro-Magnons would have been all blue-eyed and mostly blond. There is no evidence of either assumption, is there? > > Given that Neanderthals evolved in Ice Age Europe, they might well have been fair for the same reason the modern white race evolved in Europe. In a cold climate with long, dark winters, fair skin allows for better vitamin D absorption and dark skin is unnecessary in a climate where the sun’s rays cause relatively little skin cancer and sunburn. And a general decrease in melanin content in the body causes a person to have blue eyes, which is a positive advantage for people who hunt in a snowy climate. Blue-eyed people are far less subject to snow blindness than brown-eyed people. A prehistoric hunter who becomes snow-blind on a hunting trip is very nearly condemned to death. > > It is far more likely that BOTH the Cro-Magnons and the Neanderthals were fair-skinned, blond and blue-eyed, for the same reasons.The presence of dark-haired, brown-eyed Caucasians in Europe could easily be explained by later migrations of darker modern humans from the south, long after the Neanderthals had become extinct. Or for that matter, it can even be explained by dark-haired Huns and other asiatics raping their way across Europe and the crumbling Roman Empire. For the neandertals to be brown-eyed is a reasonable supposition. Without intending anything racist, it’s for the same reason that (pure) Africans have brown eyes; that mutation is not in their genetic lineage. The mutation for blue eyes arose in Europe around twenty thousand years ago - long after the neandertals were only a folk memory fossilized in myth and legend. Blond hair similarly, although it may be interrelated with skin color As to fair skin, you have a point. Skin color is related to the balance point between vitamin A destruction and vitamin D production by UV, and tracks with light levels in native populations, overriding genetic ancestry. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/65 "2012-03-01T15:54:51Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The errors cited in the OP are so egregious that one has to ask where the hell the _editor_ was. Ummm … deceased, I seem to recall. The sixth book had a different editor. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/66 "2012-03-01T16:23:00Z")
There was also an oopsie in her research for “Painted Caves.” At one point, she mentions triticale growing in a patch of grasses. :smack: Triticale is a completely artificial hybrid of wheat (_Triticum_) and rye (_Secale_). It required the crossing of polyploid strains of each grain to create a viable, reproducing plant. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/67 "2012-03-01T16:41:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > And another cheer for Valteron’s version. I have a title - Naked Came the Cave Girl. Ironic, considering the first three words of _Clan of the Cave Bear_ are “The naked child…” referring to Ayla. I’ve listened to audiobooks before and they edit out some stuff for brevity. I can’t imagine someone reading those pages and pages and pages of how to do flint knapping for audiobook purposes. Maybe listening to the audiobook is an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/68 "2012-03-02T02:13:40Z")
I listened to a radio interview once with Jean Auel a couple of sequels back. Said she’d actually received mail from a death-row inmate at one point asking when the next installment was coming out, because he wanted to read it but was worried he didn’t have much time left. ---
**Author:** ![RedWood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f08c70/32.png) [@RedWood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedWood)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/69 "2012-03-04T16:03:12Z")
hehehe (wheezes) thanks gang! Now I need not write the entirely scathing review of the series I had intended! 😃 _bows to Valderon_ Seriously folks, I waited for #6 in paperback so I wouldn’t have to waste too much money finding out How the Story Ends… 😉 and upon reading it, I rejoiced that I shall be lending my copy to at least three other people! ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/70 "2012-03-04T19:11:06Z")
> [@Valteron](#): > > Since Jean Auel is not going to produce a seventh book, maybe we should do it for her. I invite you all to contribute. Here is my offering. > > Ayla stared into the fire… \ > > Anyhow, I now have writer’s block. You take over. Brilliant! Using my newest invention _Polytrope Plot Generator™_, I’ve created some additional padding: > [@](#): > > \*Two GEICO caveman. With blue eyes. On a journey searching for the real Spitooni and trying to, unsuccessfully, pick up on chicks. Their adventures devolve into hilarious hijinks that follow them wherever they go when a simple misunderstanding about “God” results in both groups _H. neanderthalensis_ and early _H. sapiens sapiens_ hunting down our two hip & lovable characters for insulting their religion. > > Oh, and there’s a talking saber tooth tiger (“Faux Pas”) who advises them how to pick up women. > \* Or has this been done already? ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/71 "2012-03-11T22:23:09Z")
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has noticed the large number of comma splices in Auel’s later books. (I’ve read the first five books, and The Shelters of Stone is so filled with comma splices that there’s about one per page. The other books weren’t so rife with them.) (A comma splice is when a comma is used when a period, semicolon, or dash would be more appropriate.) ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/72 "2012-03-12T01:55:24Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > At one point, she mentions triticale growing in a patch of grasses. :smack: Triticale is a completely artificial hybrid of wheat (_Triticum_) and rye (_Secale_). It required the crossing of polyploid strains of each grain to create a viable, reproducing plant. DUH! Obviously, Ayla invented hybridization of grains! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/73 "2012-05-04T03:33:59Z")
Sorry to revive this but it’s relatively recent. I’m surprised she hasn’t invented farming yet. Or did she in the latest book? I’m afraid to buy it but I feel I need closure even if it will suck. To the people who have just started the first book and think the expositions of how to do this or that are long winded… just you wait. (If you continue, that is. It gets worse. Must worse.) ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/74 "2012-05-04T03:39:43Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Sorry to revive this but it’s relatively recent. > > I’m surprised she hasn’t invented farming yet. Or did she in the latest book? I’m afraid to buy it but I feel I need closure even if it will suck. > > To the people who have just started the first book and think the expositions of how to do this or that are long winded… just you wait. (If you continue, that is. It gets worse. Must worse.) I actually enjoyed the expositions in the first book. They seemed relevant and interesting, and got me personally very interested in herbology, hunting, and archeology. Later books it just becomes TEDIOUS, especially when it’s the fifth detailed description of flint knapping in the fifth book to feature it. Seriously, it’s been done to death, lady, give it a rest. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/75 "2012-05-04T03:43:14Z")
This is all disheartening, as I actually bought the latest one a couple of weeks ago and still have it sitting on my shelf. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/76 "2012-05-04T03:43:42Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > Sorry to revive this but it’s relatively recent. > > I’m surprised she hasn’t invented farming yet. Or did she in the latest book? I’m afraid to buy it but I feel I need closure even if it will suck. > > To the people who have just started the first book and think the expositions of how to do this or that are long winded… just you wait. (If you continue, that is. It gets worse. Must worse.) No, Ayla didn’t invent farming. I don’t care it that’s a spoiler. But she did have a vision of the future. Don’t buy the book. Get it from the library if you are compelled to read it. This sixth booked _ **sucked** _. And I speak as an unabashed fan of the series as a whole, tedious and long winded though some things were. Here was my thread: > **[I wasted my money on Jean Auel's latest book](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=603288)** > > Okay, I’m not an Ayla hater. While recognizing that the Earth’s Children series may not be Pulitzer winners I have, for the most part, liked them and found them interesting. Yes, Ayla was an Ice Age Mary Sue, but I like stories that describe... ---
**Author:** ![Feyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/fbc32d/32.png) [@Feyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Feyrat)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/77 "2012-05-04T03:45:05Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > This is all disheartening, as I actually bought the latest one a couple of weeks ago and still have it sitting on my shelf. Do you still have the receipt? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/78 "2012-05-04T03:47:42Z")
> [@Feyrat](#): > > Do you still have the receipt? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/79 "2012-05-04T05:28:50Z")
To Siam Sam: Be prepared to BARF over the repetition of “The Mother’s Song.” I’m retching just thinking about it! ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2012, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102/80 "2012-05-04T06:12:51Z")
The first book’s expositions fascinated me too. But after the fourth or so book (the first 3 were the best) I got tired of it. I also got interested in herbology (which helped me in a Psych episode when they were talking about digitalis, but otherwise, not so much). I was like “ooh Foxglove! That’ll kill ya!” And impressed Mister Vigilante. But if I have to read ONE MORE SONG… I don’t want to read it. So does she become the Zelandoni or what? You can spoiler it. I’ll still read it. The spoiler I mean. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-jean-auel-clan-of-the-cave-bear-lost-it-as-an-author/611102.md?page=5)