I think what Yngve was trying to say is that, when confronted by literary elite who have one set of standards, fans may retort that Heinlein invented the Waldo.
On the one hand, I don't buy the argument myself. Any literature that is actually impacting the culture has to be doing something effectively.
On the other hand, literary elite do have a certain set of rules where impacting culture in such a manner will not impress them, for it does not play the game as they see it being played.
Some don't believe in a mythical literary elite. However, there has been much evidence to the contrary, which is not to say that everyone in literary market is not close-minded concerning genre, but that the more boisterous do discourage its reading or writing or accepting it critically.
Matt Peckham thinks we should kill them with kindness--that maybe it will get them to notice us. Certainly if we can demonstrate that we know how to read the more important works, that will get attention. But it seems they would remain unimpressed until they learned variations on the rules for a different game.
My personal conclusion is to have an open critical dialogue about whatever, trying to examine everything with panache.
My condolances to Teresa.
A big whoop and congratulations from your class of 2002. Well deserved. Skylark--how cool is that?
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 2 |
| 2003 | 3 |
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