{"id":136,"date":"2012-12-06T05:09:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-06T05:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/?p=136"},"modified":"2012-12-06T16:54:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-06T16:54:36","slug":"literature-vs-genre-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/?p=136","title":{"rendered":"Literature vs. genre fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been subjected to this sentiment throughout my life: \u201cHorror, science fiction, mysteries, and the like, are fine for beach reading, but they\u2019re not <em>literature<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then a few years ago, I stumbled across an essay by Anne Rice (author of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Interview With A Vampire<\/span>, among other works) where she dared argue that genre fiction was not only just as good as literature, it was better.*<\/p>\n<p>And I wholeheartedly agree.<\/p>\n<p>I literally read hundreds of literary short stories in <a href=\"http:\/\/harpers.org\/\">Harpers<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/\">New Yorker<\/a>.\u00a0 Yes, most are masterfully written.\u00a0 But most are also slice-of-life stories.<\/p>\n<p>Everyday, I <em>live<\/em> a slice of life.\u00a0 But unlike the literature I\u2019ve read, my daily life\u2019s experiences are far richer in senses and thought than can ever be conveyed in words (though <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ulysses_(novel)\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Ulysses<\/span><\/a> comes close).\u00a0 My slices-of-life carry real consequences for me and those around me.\u00a0 And perhaps greatest of all, my slices-of-life are fleeting; they never occurred before, and they\u2019ll never occur again in the entire history of the universe, and thus, are infinitely precious.<\/p>\n<p>Literary fiction strives to capture what it is to be human.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the point of reading it?\u00a0 Just live it.<\/p>\n<p>But in my life, I know I\u2019ll never be <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sherlock_Holmes\">London\u2019s finest detective<\/a>.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dune_(novel)\"> ride a monstrous sandworm on a far off desert planet<\/a>.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll never <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Interview_with_the_Vampire\">swoon in the embrace of a vampire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Genre fiction allows us to experience fantastic delights and horrors that are impossible in our normal daily lives.\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes it great, and I contend, superior.**<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">***<\/p>\n<p>* For the life of me, I can\u2019t find the essay again.\u00a0 If anyone knows where it is, please point me to it.<\/p>\n<p>** Granted, I\u2019m a genre fiction writer, so I\u2019m a bit biased.<\/p>\n<h6><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve been subjected to this sentiment throughout my life: \u201cHorror, science fiction, mysteries, and the like, are fine for beach reading, but they\u2019re not literature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then a few years ago, I stumbled across an essay by Anne Rice (author of Interview With A Vampire, among other works) where she dared argue that genre fiction was [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.undergroundmediaware.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}