--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, JIM DOHERTY
<jimdohertyjr@...> wrote:
<<I never said they were excellent BECAUSE they were
genre fiction. I said, or at least I meant, that excellence
was not a function of whether or a piece of fiction was part
of a a genre, and that, if a genre piece does achieve
excellence, it is not because it has somehow overcome the
supposedly inherent handicaps of its genre.>>
I would like to add that _every_ piece of fiction is genre
fiction... sometimes it takes time for the genre to get a
name. When Franz Kafka was writing his brilliant stuff, the
words "Kafkian" and "noir" had not been invented, obviously,
but if somebody today were to write something reminiscent of
Kafka, it would probably be called "noir" or
"Kafkian noir", or something like that, something to do with
genre.
The division between genre and nongenre fiction doesn't exist
except in the business of publishing.
Take one of the most brilliant novels of recent times,
Roberto Bola񯧳 _The Savage Detectives_ (Los detectives
salvajes). What is it? I think many raravians would
categorize it as hardboiled and noir, without much
difficulty. The publishers would probably advertise it as
something else, and general bookstores would want to put it
with
"fiction", but the reader can see what it is...
Best,
mrt
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 07 Nov 2007 EST