What Gaiman alludes to and Chabon tackles directly is the genre which we now know as "literary": the fictional worlds inhabited by people who think a lot and say a lot and feel a lot, but don't actually do very much over the course of the narrative - they might be caught up in the swell of an emotional riptide, perhaps, until Chabon's "moment-of-truth" revelation brings the story, such as it is, to a close.Call me a troglodyte, but I do enjoy when things actually, you know, happen...
The ongoing, endless war between "literary" fiction and "genre" fiction has well-defined lines in the sand. Genre's foot soldiers think that literary fiction is a collection of meaningless but prettily drawn pictures of the human condition. The literary guard consider genre fiction to be crass, commercial, whizz-bang potboilers. Or so it goes.
6.24.2010
What do you mean, "a plot"?
I know we've all been there, seen that, but this article on the lack-of-plot associated with "good writing" hits the nail right on the head:
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I had my troglodyte id card laminated.
ReplyDelete(So... I had to look up the definition of troglodyte. You guys make me sick with your oozing intelligence and snappy wit so early in the morning.)
ReplyDeleteI also enjoy plot. In fact, if something stellar doesn't happen by page 50, I toss the book (right back into the library drop-off). Even genre fiction can be boring sometimes.
I enjoy both but I do read a lot more genre.
ReplyDeleteOh God Laurel, we have to start actually getting troglodyte IDs.
ReplyDelete"So you read a lot?"
"Yes, but I'm a card carrying troglodyte, so not with erudition."