Genre ergo not literature?
Edward Docx repeating the old party line about the inferiority of genre fiction
The same old, and largely ignorant arguments made by fearful literati against genre fiction. So do we dismiss a certain portion of Doris Lessing's Canon becasue it is SF. Do we toss out Margaret Atwood?
I like Frank's note with regard to this.
Also, I will note that I use the word ignorant advisedly. Mr. Docx contends that within the genre much of the thinking about the work is already done. Obviously he has not encountered The Man in the High Castle, The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, Babel-17, The Sparrow etc. Obviously, there is a great deal of thinking that goes into constructing the fictional world. Some hacks pick up the bits and pieces left around by other writers, but the majority are thinking every bit as much, and perhaps more than many writers of literary fiction. I suppose that the Odyssey, as a brand of genre fiction (High Fantasy) is just de trop and trapped by its conventions. And so, I would say the person who would levy this argument at genre fiction is simply ignorant of much that is within it and his opinion is tainted by that lack of knowledge.
To sum: why is it that we must feel better about ourselves by trying to run others down. The intrinsic worth--how is it measured? What are the quanta of literate fiction?
The same old, and largely ignorant arguments made by fearful literati against genre fiction. So do we dismiss a certain portion of Doris Lessing's Canon becasue it is SF. Do we toss out Margaret Atwood?
I like Frank's note with regard to this.
Also, I will note that I use the word ignorant advisedly. Mr. Docx contends that within the genre much of the thinking about the work is already done. Obviously he has not encountered The Man in the High Castle, The Dispossessed, Left Hand of Darkness, Babel-17, The Sparrow etc. Obviously, there is a great deal of thinking that goes into constructing the fictional world. Some hacks pick up the bits and pieces left around by other writers, but the majority are thinking every bit as much, and perhaps more than many writers of literary fiction. I suppose that the Odyssey, as a brand of genre fiction (High Fantasy) is just de trop and trapped by its conventions. And so, I would say the person who would levy this argument at genre fiction is simply ignorant of much that is within it and his opinion is tainted by that lack of knowledge.
To sum: why is it that we must feel better about ourselves by trying to run others down. The intrinsic worth--how is it measured? What are the quanta of literate fiction?
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