Wednesday, February 06, 2008

More on literary fiction

This post from mediabistro just went online and it ties nicely into a recent blog entry of mine:
An essay on speculative fiction

My post reflects on Jason Sanford's article where he looks to literary fiction writers to lift up speculative fiction via forays into the genre with great works. Cormac McCarthy is cited. Ron Hogan, in the mediabistro post, also refers to McCarthy via his reference to a recent Wired magazine article.

The Wired piece talks about science fiction whereas Sanford focuses on speculative fiction. However, the sentiment is the same...mincing of genres aside. There are many camps in fiction. You could call me "in the speculative fiction camp" and it would be true. However, I don't get lost in semantics. We're talking about fiction set in a different space and time. It may not be that scientific but it's not your everyday fiction either.

Whatever you call it, one thing is certain: great writers are broadening context to comment on society through fiction. In the process, they're writing great stories. Regardless of genre trends or literary acceptance, great books are the result. I'm sure we'd all agree that's what we're after.

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