IMO, much of what The Drinker describes is just plain old bad writing, but currently it's a lame writing in the style or George RR Martin or whatever is modern. It's not the style that sucks, it's the writing.
GRRM makes for an easy example. He wrote the novels for GoT's wonderful early seasons. Other people wrote the later seasons. We can compare. Both told morally ambiguous stories that played with fantasy motifs, but with the confusing twist. The handsome knight is a villain. The good lord gets killed. etc. This is the style of both early and late seasons, the late seasons just suck.
In GRRM's writing, you follow characters make fucked up, horrible and evil decisions... but motivations make sense. You understand why." In late seasons, that breaks down.
I believe a good writer could have hit all the "Rey Skywalker" identity waypoints and tied it into a story that doesn't* suck. The sucky writers could have written a simple, New Hope style hero's journey where Rey overcomes internal and external obstacles... and that story could have still sucked.
Fiction writing can have almost any moral take. Confusion, nihilism, certainty. The world can be just, the characters immoral. The world can be cruel, the heros can be moral.
In short, it's totally possible to take the lamest of moral positions and write a great story around it. Possible, but not guaranteed. Look at Ayn Rand.
IMO, much of what The Drinker describes is just plain old bad writing, but currently it's a lame writing in the style or George RR Martin or whatever is modern. It's not the style that sucks, it's the writing.
GRRM makes for an easy example. He wrote the novels for GoT's wonderful early seasons. Other people wrote the later seasons. We can compare. Both told morally ambiguous stories that played with fantasy motifs, but with the confusing twist. The handsome knight is a villain. The good lord gets killed. etc. This is the style of both early and late seasons, the late seasons just suck.
In GRRM's writing, you follow characters make fucked up, horrible and evil decisions... but motivations make sense. You understand why." In late seasons, that breaks down.
I believe a good writer could have hit all the "Rey Skywalker" identity waypoints and tied it into a story that doesn't* suck. The sucky writers could have written a simple, New Hope style hero's journey where Rey overcomes internal and external obstacles... and that story could have still sucked.
Fiction writing can have almost any moral take. Confusion, nihilism, certainty. The world can be just, the characters immoral. The world can be cruel, the heros can be moral.
In short, it's totally possible to take the lamest of moral positions and write a great story around it. Possible, but not guaranteed. Look at Ayn Rand.