Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 10:30:15 EDT From: Burning Eyes Subject: TECH: Mainstream Genre? We've had our discussions about mainstream, genre, formed and unformed writing, and so forth. I don't really want to restart those protestations of faith, but I found this article interesting and thought I would point you at it. (and yes, you'll find me in the pew of the SF genre most reading times, if that makes a difference) As a quick summary, I think Dave Wolverton presents a case for understanding where the modern mainstream genre developed from, why other genres offer other strengths, and a final plea that we allow room for many different literatures as good or even great. (for those who may be interested, I stumbled across this in looking up Tangent for Robyn: see http://www.sff.net/people/dave.t/index.htp ) some clippings from http://www.sff.net/people/dave.t/wolverton1.htp "By insisting that we write elitist fiction with powerful images, opacity, and a distinctive poetic voice; by insisting that the tales lack form; by limiting the types of characters, conflicts and settings; by favoring political correctness over other types of honest questioning or exploration of themes; and by insisting that tales lean toward existentialism rather than some more affirmative world view; a very restrictive genre emerged." "Unable to explore setting, conflict, characters or themes in their fiction, the mainstreamers wrote more and more eloquently about nothing at all. " "Sit down and study three years worth of 1980s fiction from the New Yorker, and you will discover a remarkable number of very similar stories. These were the bread and butter of the literary mainstream, and I'll call them 'Manhattan Angst' stories. They dealt with a person--often a literature professor--who goes to a New Year's party in a big city and there meets an old fling, a lost love. The height of comedy is attained when some woman enters the party who is not properly dressed for the occasion. On returning home, the meaninglessness of the protagonist's life is brought home as he watches 'dirty brown maple leaves swirling down to lie amongst the bones of leaves.'" "The existentialists may believe that life is meaningless. Indeed, if you believe that your life is meaningless, it probably will be. But does that mean that art must also be meaningless? " "As a writer of science fiction, I find it difficult to conceive why anyone would want to obscure the fact that there are cause-and-effect relationships in our lives. Eat too much, and you'll get fat. Breathe vacuum, and you die." "The existentialists who shout 'Stop making sense!' do so at a terrible price. The fact is that we can make some sense of the world." "Literature allows us to share experience, to communicate, and to grow not just as individuals, but as societies. Literature allows us to evolve. Literature makes sense." "Keeping in mind that any of my standards can successfully be violated, here is how I value a story:" "A story that fascinates is better than one that bores. A story that is eloquent is better than the babboon howlings of the verbally damned. A story that is profound, that transmits valuable insight, is better than one that is pedestrian or that is opaque. A story that speaks to many is better than one that speaks to few. A story that is beautiful in form is better than one that is inelegant, rambling or clumsy. A story that transports me to another world or that transmits experience is better than a story that leaves me sitting alone and troubled in my reading chair. A story that artfully moves me emotionally or intellectually is better than one that leaves me emotionally or intellectually anesthetized." Something to think about... tink