I've always enjoyed these little essays you wrote and really
wish you wrote more about the topic. It's probably one of the
most perceptive comments on the artificial genre/mainstream
literature divide that I've read on the internet.
-Gonzalo. saddlebums.blogspot.com
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Curt Purcell"
<curtpurcell@...> wrote:
>
> --- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, JIM DOHERTY
<jimdohertyjr@>
wrote:
> >
> > The implication of the phrase is that the
"genre" is
> > something that has to be escaped from, which
is
> > insulting to the genre and condescending to
the
> > specific piece.
>
> Oh heck, I guess I might as well jump in here, too.
I agree with
Jim
> on this. "Transcending the genre" and all its
variants is a phrase
I
> despise for exactly the reasons he gives.
>
> Not sure how this bears on the discussion of
literature, but I think
> I've figured out perhaps *the* crucial distinction
between genre
> fiction and what's called "literary" fiction (which
of course
doesn't
> necessarily count as LITERATURE simply by virtue of
being literary).
>
> Here's where I explain the distinction:
>
>
http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2007/02/horror-high-and-low-
pt-2.html
>
> In a nutshell, it's that the genre/literary
distinction corresponds
to
> the primary/secondary process distinction proposed
by Freud.
>
> Here's where I explain why that results in genre
fiction being
looked
> down upon so often, and why it actually
shouldn't:
>
>
http://groovyageofhorror.blogspot.com/2007/02/horror-high-and-low-
pt-3.html
>
> I'm afraid I've not yet continued the series, in
which I intend to
> explain in detail how things like emphasis on story
and "cliche"
stock
> characters derive from primary process, and why it's
a mistake to be
> critically dismissive of them, and what they
contribute to fiction
> that more literary emphases or more original,
developed characters
> often can't.
>
> Bringing this back to the phrase "transcending the
genre," I think
> that phrase is often applied to fiction that bears
some of the
> window-dressing of genre fiction, but that is much
more strongly
> characterized by secondary process.
>
> Anyway, just my two cents on that.
>
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