Tom Clancy fans?

[procopia]

I may be clueless, but didn't know Tom Clancy was right-wing. Appearing on Hannity & Colmes, he said right-wing books SHOULD sell well because Americans don't agree with liberals. I was so disappointed to hear him say that.

[Patriot_Spear]

1. A shill for Raygun...

The guy was an insurance salesman when he wrote Red October. It never ceases to amaze me that guys like Clancy, who write that kind of drivel, have never served a day in uniform.

His first group of books were entertaining, but he's fallen into the writers trap of repetetiveness and moralizing.

[trumad]

2. And his Ben Affleck lousy movie

he throws a pointed dig at Clinton....

[Best_man23]

12. In Sum of All Fears (the book)

He has a rent-a-cop whose name is Bill Clinton. Very nasty jab.

I used to read Clancy, but his later books have so much fluff that you can skip pages and not lose the storyline. He could take 10 pages to describe how ice forms.

[Yupster]

23. Agree Best Man

I loved his early books "Red Storm Rising," and "Red October," but I think the quality has gone down a lot.

I can't really blame him. I'm sure we'd all run out of good ideas pretyy quickly.

[HawkerHurricane]

3. I USED to be a Clancy fan...

But I also used to be more right wing than I am now.

He started becoming overtly political in his writing about the same time I did.

Reich Wing books sell because of bulk buyers, Tom.

Your books sell so well because you invented a new genre, even if other authers are now better at it than you, you were still 'the first'.

[Patriot_Spear]

4. Clancy loves the thought of Aristocracy...

Just read his books, particularly the Jack Ryan series. Ryan is always in with a group of 'elite' who quietly control and influence government.

Look at the Ryan character: a former Marine who made it rich on Wall Street- who's 'called in' to give his expertise on military matters. Eventually he's knighted for saving the Prince of Wales- blah, blah blah.

There's something vaguely unwholesome and un-American about Clancy's jingoistic pap.

[Pepperbelly]

5. Clancy is a chickenhawk and a punk and ...

if I could meet him, I would punch him in the snot locker for those very reasons. And i have read all of his books.

I read cereal boxes, too.

[KoKo]

6. Early Ludlum's are better than early Clancy's..and Ludlum's "Trevayne" is

is a must read for our times. The book foreshadow's what we are living with today. I have highlights in my copy because when Shrub was selected I dug it out of my bookshelf for a re-read.....something clicked in my mind which said "Ludlum predicted this!" (the book predicted Nixon, but still is applicable because we have worse than Nixon)

Here's and Amazon review:

Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Brilliant and incorruptible, Andrew Trevayne was a self-made millionaire at 35, former undersecretary
of state, current head of a prestigious foundation. Then, at a call from the president, he initates a probe
into the clandestine world of secret government.

Trevayne threads a maze of intrigue and danger beyond the corridors of official power where
billionaires and Mafia mingle, where Congress and even the president can be bought and sold.

In this secret world of mystery, seduction and betrayal, a chilling conspiracy brews. Here a man like
Trevayne can become a dreaded enemy, a dupe or a king.

"Don't ever begin a Ludlum novel if you have to go to work the next day!" --Chicago Sun-Times
--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Synopsis
Written at the time of Watergate, this novel is as topical and pertinent now as it was then. It is about
power, corruption and "secret government", and is a frightening indictment of "the system". The
author's numerous other novels include "The Icarus Agenda" and "The Scarlatti Inheritance".

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0246135352/102-1698865-0517702?v=glance

[Pepperbelly]

7. Both Ludlum and Clancy are ...

too wordy for serious consideration. Both bore me. They should read James Elroy and write accordingly. I know, it would be hard for Ludlum to do that but it is not too late for Clancy.

If he lost his wingnut fascination and love for Rush Limbaugh, that is.

[ForrestGump]

11. I just read "Trevayne"

Quite different from most of the other Ludlum books that I've read and very timely, then and now.

[KoKo]

15. Forrest, I'm glad to hear you read it! I wish all DU'ers would read that

book. I posted about it.....maybe a year ago here on DU and got no interest in the post. I think it was hard to find at that time......even on Amazon. Glad to see I could get a link. Some folks out there must have remembered it and requested copies.

[ForrestGump]

18. The copy I got hold of was actually pretty old

From some time in the early '80s, I think, or maybe even late '70s. it had the author's note, anyway, that explained the circumstances under which he wrote it. Definitely worth a read! There've since been a lot of books and movies that explore the same kind of territory, but that doesn't take away from the power of this book.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Well, I enjoyed Red Storm Rising

however, at the end of the day, there's too much America glorification and flag waving to take him seriously.

But I haven't read his last few releases and I am inclined not to ever give the guy another penny of my money...

[mitchum]

9. He's a ridiculous armchair warrior who runs around in quasi-military drag

His techno-weenie scribblings can't hold a candle to LeCarre, Follett, or Ludlum

[KoKo]

19. Ah.....LeCarre and Follet! Good reads....although LeCarre is really hard

to get into......It always took me three chapters of slogging before I could get into the plot......and then once you were into it......you couldn't put the book down.......but tough going for awhile there.

Follet you can jump into... Anyone read Jack Higgins......?

[KoKo]

20. BTW:LeCarre wrote articles for the Guardian Criticizing Bush/Iraq Invasion

I think one of them was titled "Has America Gone Mad?"

When I read that.......I really got worried about Bush was so anxious to get Iraq. LeCarre still has many ties to British Intelligence. Maybe he knew the information was faulty.........he probably did.

He really was upset about it and called it a terrible mistake if I remember correctly. The articles were good reads for those of us who were protesting.....

[ForrestGump]

10. He's a doofus

I enjoyed the first few of his books that I read, though they can be stultifying in their density (good thing I'm interested in some of the hardware of war, I guess). I think it was the one that had a jet smacking into the White House or Capitol that turned me off once and for all - he threw in some transparent jabs at Clinton and revealed himself for the wimpy right-winger that he really is.

Combine that with his chickenhawk braying and paramilitary dress sense - he's upstaged in his role as military poseur only by the crotch-stuffing simian himself - and it's enough to put me off his books. They were never really that great and I think they got worse as he cranked more out.

[baldguy]

13. It took me a while, but . . .

Once Jack Ryan got to be Prez (after an airliner crashes into the Capitol Bldg - sound familiar, Condi?) and decides that manipulating the markets and assassinating foreign leaders that disagree with him should be the way America deals with problems - just turned me off Clancy.

He may be prescient, but his books don't condone or promote American values of democracy, liberty and human freedom.

[kendric]

14. I don't care.

I don't let politics get in the way of enjoying a book, dictate where I eat or shop, a particular actor in a movie, or singer on stage beacuse of there political views. If I did that, I wouldn't be able to shop almost anywhere, watch TV, use the MILITARY/CORPORATE internet. Or get in the way of a friend. Some things are just more important.

[ForrestGump]

16. Me neither

But Clancy's political agenda and his perpetual (chicken)hawkishness are enmeshed within his books, and that makes a difference.

[Pepperbelly]

17. but he's such a ...

piss poor story teller.

I suppose that is why they makie both chocolate and vanilla ice cream, eh?

Read some James Elroy and I expect Clancy would get no more of your money to give to the gops.

[Cat Atomic]

21. The man writes with his cock.

Honestly, I picked up a Clancy book a few years ago, and could not finish it. It's absolutely stuffed with right wing politics, and his odd focus on masculinity goes way past the standard "tough guy" fare and wanders into a sort of Freudian homo eroticism.

:p

And beyond all that, he just sucks as a writer. It's just action, with no subtext.

[KoKo]

22. How many "Newbies" might read this? And which author would they see as

being the person who might "enlighten" them?

For all the DU Newbies.....