It's unsettling that good genre fiction ends up shelved as literature -- Emperor of Ocean Park isn't in the mystery section, nor is Cat's Cradle in SF/F. Not only does this keep "normal" folks from reading other genre books they would like, it also keeps genre readers away from awesome books like Master and Margarita and Satanic Verses, traditionally thought of as literature, which are amazing stories, and far less formulaic than mainstream fantasy. Not all literature is as depressing as Thomas Hardy, any more than all fantasy, urban or whatever, is about vampires mourning the fact that alas, they, damned childer of Caine, are cursed forever more to wander the earth without feeling the touch of the sun, tragically alone etc.
A good quotes from the estimable GK Chesterton, a great literary mind if there ever was one, on the danger of too much angst regardless of whatever fiction you're writing:
"A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possible be alive."
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-09-29 08:39 pm (UTC)A good quotes from the estimable GK Chesterton, a great literary mind if there ever was one, on the danger of too much angst regardless of whatever fiction you're writing:
"A detective story generally describes six living men discussing how it is that a man is dead. A modern philosophic story generally describes six dead men discussing how any man can possible be alive."