Author Will Shetterly asks: Is “literary and genre” a clumsy distinction? The post is interesting and the comments even more so. They touch upon some of the literary-type discussions we’ve had here.

There are many statements this post that resonate with me: Story and style crossing genre boundaries; not liking a book of a certain type; reading fiction to be entertained, and Rebecca Ore’s sentiment that [paraphrasing] “If writing stories that show technology and science…is worth doing, it’s worth doing…well.”

As I ponder more and more about this, I am reminded that the reader play a crucial role as well. My own moods play into my enjoyment of books and stories. Sometimes I am in the mood for slam-bang action and sometimes I’m looking for something literary. (Deferring the quagmire of a discussion of exactly what that means, I will say that I am currently reading the fantasy story “The Cosmology of the Wider World” by Jeffrey Ford. It’s literate and likable and a story which is helping me pinpoint my hit-and-miss track record with fantasy. More to come in a later post.)

Anyway, it’s always entertaining to read Another Literary Debate as it pertains to science fiction, eh?

Related posts:

  1. Are You a Literary Snob?
  2. SciFi Themes Invade the Literary World
  3. Cinematic vs. Literary Science Fiction
  4. Do You Like Reading Multiple Books in Parallel?
  5. Short Stories vs. Novels: The Long and Short of It

Filed under: Books

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