(no subject)

[winterbadger]

Reading a SciF/Fantasy book review, I came across this passage.

I think what gets me so about moments like this is how they involve self-realization. A paradigm shift, however slight (or major), where the characters are forced to confront something scary/extraordinary/beyond the normal, not about the world around them but about themselves.

It’s a literary trope that does exist outside the sf genre, but it’s much harder to find, and in my mind at least is rarely as viscerally satisfying.

Is it just me, or do others feel this betrays the reviewer's astounding lack of familiarity with much of mainstream literature? It seems as if just this sort of self-realisation is a terrifically common part of modern fiction, from Charles Dickens to JD Salinger to Jhumpa Lahiri.

 

Comments

[dativesingular.livejournal.com]

but it’s much harder to find, and in my mind at least is rarely as viscerally satisfying

Having read that, I can't help but wonder if it's the reviewer's own bias making it *appear* to be harder to find.

[winterbadger]

I happened across one series of blog reviews on the Tor website that were really quite entertaining and often insightful. Having finished them, I went looking around for others and found the series that this quote comes from. Assuming that it would be of similar quality, I plunged in. And I'm seeing just how rash an assumption that was.

The thing about blogs, even on commercial websites, is that most of them are a free gift of the writer's product to whoever maintains the site. And as long as they have some appeal to *some*one and don't actively offend anyone, the site is probably not going to be too critical about their quality.

The first reviewer was someone who is a fan of a specific subgenre about which she chose to write, but she's intelligent and educated and has a good grasp of literature in general. By contrast, the second reviewer is someone whose insight and talent barely rises above summarising the plot and saying "Squeee!" every so often. Which is fine if that's all one needs; it's just not really up to the level of my first experience with the site.

[dativesingular.livejournal.com]

That's a shame, but I do know what you mean.

What are you reading, if you don't mind my asking? I suddenly have an hour-long commute via public transit, and I need to stave off boredom. :)

[winterbadger]

For no reason I can adequately explain, I started reading the Wheel of Time books again, after getting sick of them around book six or seven. It may take even less time for me to be annoyed enough at Jordan to stop, but for now the story is pulling me along enough to keep reading without throwing it across the room.

I remain convinced, however, that some of the things his fans think are clever artistry are, in fact, simply bad writing.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, and I believe it is easily found in every genre

[josh-cru.livejournal.com]

In my experience, people who read fantasy usually don't read much else, so her idea of genre is high fantasy versus sword and sorcery. _shrug_ I'm not judging anybody though.
I got through 4 or 5 of the wheel of time before I just had to put it down, the length vs enjoyment ratio was way off (kind of like some wargame rules I know).

[winterbadger]

In my experience, people who read fantasy usually don't read much else, so her idea of genre is high fantasy versus sword and sorcery.

Possibly, but IME people usually use "genre" to discriminate what are perceived as the lesser forms of fiction from mainstream literary fiction.

_shrug_ I'm not judging anybody though.

That's because you are a gentle, generous soul, Josh. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm simply not that good a person :-) and will quite happily judge people. :-D

I got through 4 or 5 of the wheel of time before I just had to put it down,

I'm so ashamed to openly admit I'm reading them again, because I went on quite a rant the last time I stopped (for much the same reason as yourself). Jordan can be a decent writer, but he seems unable to subsist on his own imagination alone and keeps borrowing tropes from other writers and from myth. Not to expand or elaborate on, or take in a different direction, or do anything imaginative with, but almost as if he feels the need to say "See? I have read all the great authors, and I can pull stuff out of their books and put it in mine anytime I want." He's also not so hot at character development, so why he felt he needed to write 10+ books about the same characters, instead of, maybe, telling all these different stories about different people, I don't quite know.

In the same way that I don't know why, with all his faults, I'm reading one of his damn books again. :-)

the length vs enjoyment ratio was way off (kind of like some wargame rules I know).

LOL! I know what you mean. :-)

[josh-cru.livejournal.com]

Completely agree with "genre" being used negatively. Even so much so that sci-fi writers refer to fantasy as being a lesser form of fiction. For example, and I know you used to read it, Joe Haldeman will always take a swipe at fantasy in his blog if he gets a chance, and I like that guy (although he is getting crotchety in his old age).
I think it was Anne McCaffrey who once said her books were science fiction because she made a point to tell the reader how her dragons had hollow bones, so of course they could fly in real life, as if that fact alone made all the difference _sigh_

[winterbadger]

OTOH, Michael Chabon gets very grumpy (and he is fairly young :-) about the "ghetto-ization" of genre fiction.

I think it was Anne McCaffrey who once said her books were science fiction because she made a point to tell the reader how her dragons had hollow bones, so of course they could fly in real life, as if that fact alone made all the difference _sigh_

OMG! Well, despite being a HUGE AMcC fan in high school (another of my many shames--I think maybe I was a gurl; I read all the angsty emo teen fiction short of Judy BLume) I am totally unsurprised by that, as I've come to feel she is just a pair of wings and a tiny gout of flame away from being all My Little Pony...