At least with Stephen King, we know that he writes his own stuff. Despite being a franchiser, with unprecedented levels of success for an author and volumes of royalty income, he loves the craft too much do pull this shit that you say Patterson is doing (whose books I have not read). That is what makes King a true artist and writer, despite me agreeing with him whole-heartedly that he is the "literary equivalent of a Big Mac and Fries."

This is sad, though. You know, it's very scandalous and self-debasing to be doing this sort of thing. If you have a God-given talent to write or to make art, then you need to use the hell out of it while you have it.

But I guess this is the reason why we're not seeing literary stars of a Hemingway, Kafka, Dostoevsky, or O'Connor-type caliber.