Category: Bookish Thoughts
-
The Debate: Literary vs. Genre Fiction, and Is There a Chasm Between the Two?
When I began submitting stories to fiction magazines, I was amazed to find there was a large gulf between “genre” fiction and “literary” fiction, and that literary fiction was usually considered to be the superior kind. As a person who enjoys reading all types of books, I’d always thought a good story was a good…
-
There Will Be Superheroes
A call to abolish them is completely misguided The other day I came across this article, which reviews the claim of film critic David Denby that our society needs rescuing from our obsession with superheroes, and that the movie business never will be mature and realistic until it stops focusing on fantasies like these. As…
-
A Fighter or a Philosopher? Achilles Ponders
“One and the same lot for the man who hangs back and the man who battles hard. The same honor waits for the coward and the brave. They both go down to Death, the fighter who shirks, the one who works to exhaustion.” – Achilles, The Iliad (Book 9, 385-388, translation by Fagles, 1990) Like…
-
Unicorns in the Streets: What is Genre, Anyway?
J.K. Rowling just released her latest book yesterday, and surprise, surprise, it is not about wizards. Or magic. Or unicorns. She has firmly departed her old stomping grounds of children’s fantasy, and forayed into what might be called contemporary adult fiction. Which got me thinking – why do we draw such hard and fast lines…
-
Read The Iliad!
“Sing to me, Muse, of the wrath of Achilles…” – Homer, The Iliad I was blown away by how good The Iliad is. I’ve read classics before and wondered why they were considered classics, but I have no doubt as to why The Iliad managed to survive for thousands of years. And I’ve never been…
-
I Read the Appendices
OR, Geeking Out Over Author’s Supplements If I read something and like it, I tend to read absolutely everything related to it. I never realized how pronounced this tendency has been throughout my whole life, until this week I looked up Little House on the Prairie on Wikipedia. I read the series as a kid,…
-
Secret Admirers Don’t Exist
“I have a secret secret admirer. Not only is her identity a secret—but so is the fact that she admires me.” ― Jarod Kintz, This Book Title is Invisible It’s a bit of an awkward admission to make, but every once in a while, I need to give up on a guy more quickly. I…
-
Top 5 Literary Couples
So if I complain about Romeo and Juliet, Twilight, et al., what literary couple do I think worthy of being in the “top five”? Clearly, ones with some sort of strong personality types, and some sort of relationship journey. I don’t necessarily think these couples have to be in “romance books,” because sometimes the best…
-
Let’s Just Blame the Plot on Someone’s Sex Drive
The Problems with Leaving Romance up to “Overwhelming Attraction” You know what I hate? I hate when romantic comedies or romance novels set up a perfectly good antagonistic relationship between two main characters (you know, where they take an instant dislike to each other, like in the beginning of Pride and Prejudice), and then easily…
-
The Dangerous Business of Recommending Novels
And the Dangerous Business of Reading Recommendations Someone lends you a book, telling you it’s “fantastic,” “will change your life forever,” or that you “have to read it.” You take and swear you’ll read it. Then it sits on your bookshelf for the next twelve months, while you stare at it and promise yourself you…
Hmm... 