tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post8160838034621798950..comments2024-03-27T23:59:01.850-07:00Comments on Writing About Writing (And Occasionally Some Writing): No Apologies! A Defense of Why Speculative Fiction Needs No Defense (Part 5)Chris Brecheenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07819138776404280633noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2660089177097719300.post-72185148526036407812014-09-07T05:53:14.148-07:002014-09-07T05:53:14.148-07:00Further, when non-genre fiction is NOT held accoun...<i> Further, when non-genre fiction is NOT held accountable for all the crap it produces, the issue of confirmation bias is compounded. No one is gathering up all the examples of mediocre gritty fiction in halfway houses with homophobic dads.</i><br /><br />I can't make this list, because as previously mentioned, I'm not terrible fond of the literary fiction genre. If I had to include terrible books that were in the literary genre, I can remember "Go Ask Alice" and maybe some John Grisham works. <br /><br />I mention this for two reasons:<br /><br />1) If I were to ask a lit snob, they would say those don't count as "literary" because "Go Ask Alice is" *sniff* TEEN fiction, and Grisham does mostly mysteries, and that's another genre. So it's not only that they wave away "good" speculative fiction as suddenly NOT speculative fiction, they also decide that anything literary that is bad must not be literary. <br /><br />2) I find it curious that despite the fact that that genre writing is considered "awful" by lit snobs, they still know it. Even if you are a lit snob, you know what Harry Potter is. You are aware of Dan Brown, and probably even Pratchett. If you asked a lit snob some examples of bad genre fiction, they could list of tons of examples. But in order to list those examples off, you still have to know about them. I don't read literary fiction, so I can't list off the same reams of bad lit fiction except the stuff that I was forced to read by school or circumstance. Literary fiction that is bad goes unread. So which is worse- a cliche heavy story that has a few laser guns or dwarfs in it that everyone still reads and enjoys, or a cliche heavy story about homophobic dads and drug use that no one reads? Antigone10https://www.blogger.com/profile/12414420272263327779noreply@blogger.com