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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