Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Someone help me out with this.  Is there an asterisk I’m missing somewhere?  Does the freedom of speech part only apply to people in certain employment fields?  Because as far as I’m concerned Stephen King had every damn right to say that Stephenie Meyer couldn’t “write worth a darn.”  This is aside from the fact that I don’t really think King can do any wrong and I think he hit the nail pretty hard on the head.  This is simple freedom of speech.

It’s about owning your words, people.  The people going “OMG I can’t believe he said that!” or “how could he say that?” or “respect your fellow writer by not saying things like that!” or “he didn’t have the right to say that!” make me twitch.  Now I don’t really swear all that often on this blog, but this ridiculous explosion has rendered it.  Shut the fuck up already.

Like I said in a previous post, there’s no reason why writers should be held to such a higher standard with their “co-workers” and “not be allowed” to say such things.  I’ve heard the argument that it’ll make you a marketing nightmare.  Ok.  Because you don’t like every book you pick up and want to express that?  If it’s a substantiated claim then what’s the problem?  Get over it.  Just because I’m a writer doesn’t mean I automatically forfeit my right to an opinion.  In this day and age, it doesn’t have to be written on the internet or in a writing forum for the world to find out about it.

This is just absurb.  King said Meyer sucks and Rowling rocks.  I can guarantee he’s not the only one that feels like that.  So why shouldn’t he say it again?  Because there’s some implied obligation in the writing world that we need to have a 24/7 love-in?  He’s entitled to his opinion and he can say it wherever he damn well pleases.  Was it blunt?  Yes.  Does the truth hurt?  Yes.  Did he not realize what he was saying?  I highly doubt it.  Does he regret what he said?  Probably not.

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