Bridget O. (sixteendays) -
Helpful Score: 2
Michael McCarty really, really, really likes himself. There's not anything wrong with that, per se, but when you present a book of "35 Interviews with Horror & Science Fiction Writers and Filmmakers", it seems a little weird to keep giving yourself pats on the back for scoring the interviews.
The interviews them selves are only somewhat interesting, and there are, unfortunately, not a whole lot of pearls of wisdom' that come out in the writer's responses. My favorites were the interviews with John Saul and Peter Straub. I was really looking forward to the Linnea Quigley and Cassandra Peterson interviews, but McCarty insisted on mostly asking stuff about posing for play boy and "what was it like to be naked in the rain?" When it came to any interviews with male writers, any questions about sex/image were strictly "how challenging do you find it to write erotic scenes?" It was a huge letdown for me. I think anyone that knows anything about the horror industry knows how it has always been buried under a curtain of sexism and female objectification, and McCarty did nothing to assuage that in his interviews.
There were a couple of other interview missteps, such as when he asked one writer if he had ever gone to this one specific jazz festival, and the answer was just "No." I don't really understand why you would include that in the final version of this book.
Overall I was bored, uninspired, and annoyed by McCarty's self-congratulatory tone.
The interviews them selves are only somewhat interesting, and there are, unfortunately, not a whole lot of pearls of wisdom' that come out in the writer's responses. My favorites were the interviews with John Saul and Peter Straub. I was really looking forward to the Linnea Quigley and Cassandra Peterson interviews, but McCarty insisted on mostly asking stuff about posing for play boy and "what was it like to be naked in the rain?" When it came to any interviews with male writers, any questions about sex/image were strictly "how challenging do you find it to write erotic scenes?" It was a huge letdown for me. I think anyone that knows anything about the horror industry knows how it has always been buried under a curtain of sexism and female objectification, and McCarty did nothing to assuage that in his interviews.
There were a couple of other interview missteps, such as when he asked one writer if he had ever gone to this one specific jazz festival, and the answer was just "No." I don't really understand why you would include that in the final version of this book.
Overall I was bored, uninspired, and annoyed by McCarty's self-congratulatory tone.
