Re: RARA-AVIS: Realism and Reality

Greg Swan (greg@swans.org)
Wed, 12 Aug 1998 09:25:16 -0700 Mark Sullivan wrote:
> So it all comes down to how much you trust the artist and a knowledgable
> reader has one more area for potential betrayal.

Some good points, Mark. For me, it's not so much the artist who's
responsible for trust, although I definitely acknowledge the artist has some
duties in that regard. In my world, the primary responsibility for trust
usually lies with me and my expectations.

For instance, I would normally approach stories which I think are "true"
(e.g., narrative-style non-fiction like biography) with a much higher
standard for realism. I expect less realism from fiction. Keeping with
genres in the list topic, I'm not at all bothered by the unrelenting
gritty-ness and violence in Westlake's first Parker book. In fact, I'd
claim that most hardboiled fiction is absurd in this respect. Another
example: I can't read Carroll John Daly as hardboiled fiction. Instead, I
must approach the father of hardboiled fiction with the same mindset I
reserve for romantic adventure fiction, such as Edgar Rice Burroughs. If I
read it expecting to hold Daly to the standards of a typical hardboiled
detective novel, I'd throw the book against the wall in disappointment.

Greg Swan
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