# SF author who was bad on purpose? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 17, 2005, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065 "2005-03-17T23:10:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065/41 "2005-03-19T17:24:38Z")
I always thought the [Perry Rhodan series](http://www.perry-rhodan.us/) qualified, except that it has no single author, but it is ungodly space dreck. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065/42 "2005-03-19T19:51:18Z")
> [@Rube E. Tewesday](#): > > Huh, wonder what happened to my copy of _Venus on the Half-Shell_ ? Probably lent it to somebody who never returned it, or sold it to a used bookstore for a dime or something. > > I still think that its recurring question “Why are we born only to suffer and to die?” is one that I’d like an answer to. My copy is right next to my Tubb books, oddly enough. As a side note, I believe there is reference in the book to stories about Ralph von Wau, intelligent dog. Farmer wrote some of these, and published a few in F&SF, but they’ve never been collected in book form as far as I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065/43 "2005-03-19T22:26:32Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > I always thought the [Perry Rhodan series](http://www.perry-rhodan.us/) qualified, except that it has no single author, but it is ungodly space dreck. Appreciate your bringing this to our attention, since everybody obviously missed the references the first **three thimes** it was mentioned in this thread. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065/44 "2005-03-20T01:07:44Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Smith? _Tarzan_?? 😕 > > Burroughs, right? Oh, bugger. You and **BrainGlutton** are correct. Damnit, I knew I had the name wrong and once more second-guessed myself into being an idiot. The series was definitely _Tarzan_, and the writer (by deduction) was Burroughs. As I said, though, I don’t know if the people who told me this _knew_ or just _thought_ they knew. As a side note, Spider never said the author in question was an SF author; we’re assuming that because we’re told to ask around at an SF convention. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065/45 "2005-03-20T03:31:55Z")
Just for the record. Tarzan was only Burroughs’ third published work, at a time when he was desperately trying to make a go of writing. His first two books barely managed to get into print after much rewriting and rejection. He was hardly in a position to deliberately write something as bad as possible and think it would sell. And in fact psychologically he would never do so because he was the type that agonized over everything he wrote, worried that it was never good enough. I say it’s spinach, and I say the hell with it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065/46 "2005-03-20T22:27:56Z")
> [@](#): > > No, but actually Asimov did use the idea in one of his stories. An author wrote a deliberately bad mystery novel as a parody of mystery novels in general, then found himself trapped into a long series of them. Then the detective comes to life, and starts haunting the detective. That would be “Author, Author!”. But I seem to recall that the protagonist wasn’t deliberately bad; I got the impression that he knew he was a hack, but kept churning them out because the fans demanded them. Not that he wouldn’t have preferred to do a good job. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-author-who-was-bad-on-purpose/295065.md?page=2)