Re: RARA-AVIS: Unreliable narrator

From: Kerry J. Schooley ( gsp.schoo@murderoutthere.com)
Date: 14 Nov 2005


At 08:53 AM 12/11/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>I think we're saying the same thing too, Kerry.

Jeeze, maybe not.

> It all really comes down to
>less plot twists and more character = more literary

Not my point at all. Lots of bad writing in the literary genre too.

I think you're equating a strong plot with one that draws attention to itself because it is not used to develop or reveal the character. But the list has provided plenty of examples of well plotted stories that do quite the opposite, the point being that a strong plot does not automatically mean a badly written story.

>, and yes, up North you
>tend to have a more literary crowd! Unfortunately, more literary = less
>popular,
>way less money. But we're all stuck with our preferences.

Up north we have a popular market dominated by U.S. publishers. Back when only academics read the few, published books by Canadian writers, they tended to define them as "literary." In the 60's when Canadian writers and publishers made a concerted effort to get more Canadian produced books onto Canadian bookstore shelves, they tended to try to have at least something that might appeal to the academics and critics who had supported Canadian publishing for so long- and there's always those bulk sales if the book gets on an English Lit. course list.

But TV had already taken over the market in popular fiction. The pulp market was well on its way to becoming a niche market. Thank god for computers.

But all that aside, what has genre to do with good writing? "Literary" is just another genre.

Kerry

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