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Licherachur
Jan. 19th, 2015 10:47 amAs inspiration for the Blakes 7 novel, I'm re-reading Nineteen Eighty-Four, a book I first attempted at the age of nine, only to be disgusted by Julia's removing her clothes in Winston's dream and putting it back on the shelf. (I made it through the sex-soaked Brave New World the same year, probably because it all went over my head.) Partway through a literary science fiction novel is the perfect place to be when encountering this pair of essays from 2012:
"Easy Writers" by Arthur Krystal, in the New Yorker
"Literary Revolution in the Supermarket Aisle: Genre Fiction Is Disruptive Technology" by Lev Grossman, in TIME
Both are thought-provoking examinations of the differences between literary and genre novels (the latter is a jaunty response to the former). With the clock ticking on Mediasphere, I have to wonder if what distinguishes gen from lit above all are the deadline and the wordcount - the tight constraints on space and time dictated by the needs of commerce.
ETA: This posting has gained unexpected relevance with the Puppies' assault on the Hugos - specifically, the complaint that award-winning SF has become too literary.
"Easy Writers" by Arthur Krystal, in the New Yorker
"Literary Revolution in the Supermarket Aisle: Genre Fiction Is Disruptive Technology" by Lev Grossman, in TIME
Both are thought-provoking examinations of the differences between literary and genre novels (the latter is a jaunty response to the former). With the clock ticking on Mediasphere, I have to wonder if what distinguishes gen from lit above all are the deadline and the wordcount - the tight constraints on space and time dictated by the needs of commerce.
ETA: This posting has gained unexpected relevance with the Puppies' assault on the Hugos - specifically, the complaint that award-winning SF has become too literary.
