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:
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.

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.
Call me a troglodyte, but I do enjoy when things actually, you know, happen...

4 comments:

  1. I had my troglodyte id card laminated.

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  2. (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.)

    I 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.

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  3. I enjoy both but I do read a lot more genre.

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  4. Oh God Laurel, we have to start actually getting troglodyte IDs.

    "So you read a lot?"

    "Yes, but I'm a card carrying troglodyte, so not with erudition."

    ReplyDelete