Closet Rebel’s answer to “Was it really written by Harper Lee? Readers might be able to tell. Either way, it will make mill…” > Likes and Comments
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She wrote To Kill A Mockingbird but she wrote Truman Capote into the story as Jem and Scout's weird little friend.
Capote couldn't write his way out of a paper bag...had he written Mockingbird he would have told the world, at the top of his silly voice twice a month for years on the Tonight Show. He was an awful man who loved to blow his own horn. There's no chance he would have kept something like that to himself!
Johnny_Dancing, I agree. I think Lee tried her best to imitate Capote's "Other Voices, Other Rooms" and "Glass Harp." Both are great, "Watchman" is like bad fan fiction of either. Capote stepped forward and fixed "Watchman." There is NO WAY Lee could go from "Watchman" to "Mockingbird" in two years.
Peter, I agree, Capote had an odd voice, one you call silly. But he was a great writer!
Yeah, I know I'm not being fair to Capote as a writer...but he loved to chat and gossip, and I have a hard time believing he could have kept that a secret until he died!
Peter, yes, he did love to chat, mostly in attempts to be funny or shocking. But never once anywhere did he reveal the extent of his sex life (his lovers, who included along the way some very famous people according to Vidal and Tennessee Williams). He may indeed have had only one true friend his entire life, Harper Lee. And let's not forget Capote created an entirely new genre that sounded like nothing he or anyone else had ever written with In Cold Blood. To me, Watchman seems like a bad imitation of his early work. I'm not taking anything from TKAM, it's a good novel no matter who wrote it, but going from Watchman to Mockingbird in only two years would be a stretch for anyone. Writing is tough. Great discussion though.
I may be duped by her gnomish jenesaisquoi, but I've always taken Alice Lee at her word, something I would never do with Truman Capote or Harper Lee, who gave us precious few public words in the first place. But Alice paints a rather sour picture of Truman in the documentary Hey Boo, and that plus the other things I've read from her regarding the relationship between Truman and Harper post-TKM has the ring of truth to it. Alice was her sister's public mouthpiece and protector, and after her death this awful draft was foisted on the public this summer.
I'm tempted to take the other approach and suggest that Harper helped Truman with his best work, and after their relationship went south he was unable to write anything that matched In Cold Blood!
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Terri Lynn
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Jul 10, 2015 12:03AM
She wrote To Kill A Mockingbird but she wrote Truman Capote into the story as Jem and Scout's weird little friend.
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Capote couldn't write his way out of a paper bag...had he written Mockingbird he would have told the world, at the top of his silly voice twice a month for years on the Tonight Show. He was an awful man who loved to blow his own horn. There's no chance he would have kept something like that to himself!
Johnny_Dancing, I agree. I think Lee tried her best to imitate Capote's "Other Voices, Other Rooms" and "Glass Harp." Both are great, "Watchman" is like bad fan fiction of either. Capote stepped forward and fixed "Watchman." There is NO WAY Lee could go from "Watchman" to "Mockingbird" in two years.
Peter, I agree, Capote had an odd voice, one you call silly. But he was a great writer!
Yeah, I know I'm not being fair to Capote as a writer...but he loved to chat and gossip, and I have a hard time believing he could have kept that a secret until he died!
Peter, yes, he did love to chat, mostly in attempts to be funny or shocking. But never once anywhere did he reveal the extent of his sex life (his lovers, who included along the way some very famous people according to Vidal and Tennessee Williams). He may indeed have had only one true friend his entire life, Harper Lee. And let's not forget Capote created an entirely new genre that sounded like nothing he or anyone else had ever written with In Cold Blood. To me, Watchman seems like a bad imitation of his early work. I'm not taking anything from TKAM, it's a good novel no matter who wrote it, but going from Watchman to Mockingbird in only two years would be a stretch for anyone. Writing is tough. Great discussion though.
I may be duped by her gnomish jenesaisquoi, but I've always taken Alice Lee at her word, something I would never do with Truman Capote or Harper Lee, who gave us precious few public words in the first place. But Alice paints a rather sour picture of Truman in the documentary Hey Boo, and that plus the other things I've read from her regarding the relationship between Truman and Harper post-TKM has the ring of truth to it. Alice was her sister's public mouthpiece and protector, and after her death this awful draft was foisted on the public this summer.I'm tempted to take the other approach and suggest that Harper helped Truman with his best work, and after their relationship went south he was unable to write anything that matched In Cold Blood!
