RARA-AVIS: Re: Joyce Carol Oates

Fred Willard (fwillard@bellsouth.net)
Fri, 16 Oct 1998 17:09:37 -0400 > found.dead.in.texas@airmail.net wrote:
> >
> > She . . . was very late and everyone bowed down like the Queen Mum had arrived. . .
>She stressed she was a novelist not a "genre" writer
>
>
>"Robert E. Skinner" <rskinner@mail.xula.edu> wrote
> Ouch! What was she doing at Bouchercon? Wasn't she
>scared she'd catch something?
> --

I think this is very interesting. I don't see anything wrong with
calling yourself whatever you want. For example, I prefer the
category "crime fiction" rather than mystery because I don't want
people thinking they are picking up a cozy and finding bloodshed
and violence.

But if you are using the term "novelist" to distance yourself from
the riff-raff in genre writing, I think the concept is a bit dated in that
the avant-garde began embracing popular culture forty years ago or
more.

I don't want to get too academic here, particularly since I don't have
any academic credentials, but I don't see the distinctions between
fine and popular art as being as sharp as they may have been at
one time.

Fred

Please note new addresses below:
------------------------
Down on Ponce by Fred Willard
fwillard@bellsouth.net

http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/~fwillard
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