McCaffrey was an odd duck, which probably isn't saying much. She had visions for her stories, and wrote them (beautifully), but she couldn't accept criticism that her vision was erred. I remember hearing how she faced off with Michael Whelan (my favorite SF cover art artists) because of his depictions of her "thread." She wanted it to look driving rain. He depicted it like floating tinsel. Some of his worst cover art was done forher books, like he was thinking "I don't have time for this nonsense!" And she wrote in side/snide comments in her books that Whelan is highly sought after, but he isn't all that.
I once met McCaffrey, but didn't realize it until later. I was reading one of her books on a flight, and she was seated next to me. She asked what I was reading, and intolerant this old busy body was interrupting my reading at one of the good parts, and simply closed the cover for her to read the title herself. Then she tried wheedling a comment out of me, by saying "Oh, she must be a young writer!" "naw, she's an old chick." And close the book so she can see her picture on the rear dust jacket, then resume my reading.
I didn't say McCaffrey was "pressured" into anything, I've read her publishers had "suggested" that she try writing more aduĺt content into her books because critics thought her writing style was very YA, and her publishers thought it might boost sales. Supposedly, she was strongly against such stuff, and yet insinuated mature subject matter in her T&T stories. As far as her thoughts on what genre her stories were, I've never met a rock band that said of their own work that it was anything other than, "oh, it's new! It's totally new! It's a direction of Rock that has never been explored before!" Yet it sounds like the same old rock n roll. In other words, writers write. Others who study other's writings will categorize it as they like. Personally, I never saw the SF in her stories. It was more Fantasy if you ask me. She might have thought she had science and technology backing her ideas, but she only passing talked about it, more focused on the human emotion side of thìngs (which, hey, I liked. Who cares what title was put on the category of her books? As you pointed out, she was well read) |