If Ferrol Sams was a pleasant surprise, Butler was a disappointment. I'm one of his biggest fans, actually. I love his short stories, and I am one of the few people who has watched all of the video where he writes a short story and we look over his shoulder - for hours and hours.
But in person? Not so impressive. He started by reading his theory of short short fiction versus poetry. Informative, well thought out, well written, but just a little condescending and arrogant. Then he read for the rest of the hour, his short shorts, published and unpublished. He didn't take a single question, alluded to his recent marital difficulties many times, and I had to question his choice of material several times. How arrogant must you be to write in the first person voice of Walt Whitman and Oscar Wilde?
In retrospect though, I probably knew he was like this. What kind of an ego must you have to film yourself for hours writing a short story, with the expectation that people like me will actually watch it? And I did watch it, and learned from it. But that doesn't alter my assesment of his personality.
Actually this is the first author talk I have ever been to where I was disappointed in the personality of the author. But he can still write, regardless of what kind of person he is.
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