The Literary Now: Genre, Murakami & Greene
Posted by: kdc
While David drums up particulars for a Collideoscope Book Club, I ran across this fascinating insight by Michael Dirda, one of the Washington Post's primary book reviewers, on fiction today. He starts off talking about the mesmerizing Haruki Murakami (start with The Wild Sheep Chase), but then veers into the big picture on today's literary choices:
"Over the past 25 years, literary fiction has increasingly disdained the strict tenets of social realism. Our finest writers are now producing what is essentially science fiction (Cormac McCarthy's The Road), alternate history (Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union) and absurdist fantasy (the short stories of George Saunders). A hot author such as Jonathan Lethem proudly introduces the work of Philip K. Dick for the Library of America. Neil Gaiman, creator of the Sandman series, has achieved rock-star status. We are living in an age when genre fiction -- whether thrillers or graphic novels, children's books or sf -- seems far more exciting and relevant than well-wrought stories of adultery in Connecticut."
Frankly, the rest of the After Dark's review is lame and rushed, but that paragraph may be the most prescient encapsulation of literature today. I tend toward the literary in my choices, but one of my continual frustrations is how few talented writers are capturing today. This is particularly galling with Christian literature - it appears to me that even the magnificent Marilynne Robinson (Gilead) is recording the eternal past, not the present.
Genre is Today's World?
Yes, there's always the fear that when a book captures the moment today, it will read like yesterday's news tomorrow. But there's an equal risk that in attempting to capture the eternal, you end up with a bland timelessness that applies to no one. Part of meeting Ezra Pound's "literature is news that stays news" criteria is in taking a chance with your story.
Perhaps genre fiction encourages a certain risk within a predetermined framework? Murakami's best stories are often "detective stories/mysteries" that careen into the unexpected corners of urban alienation, metaphysics, and the nature of commitment - all while the unnamed protagonist's life remains at stake, sometimes in pulse-pounding fashion.
Graham Greene often created (Christian) literature among gun shots, spies, private investigators, and murderous environments. When he wasn't writing literature, he would write "entertainments," lighter fare about...gun shots, spies, private investigators, and murderous environments. Perhaps his is the template for literature (not fiction) today?
That may not be such a bad situation for all of us.
While David drums up particulars for a Collideoscope Book Club, I ran across this fascinating insight by Michael Dirda, one of the Washington Post's primary book reviewers, on fiction today. He starts off talking about the mesmerizing Haruki Murakami (start with The Wild Sheep Chase), but then veers into the big picture on today's literary choices:"Over the past 25 years, literary fiction has increasingly disdained the strict tenets of social realism. Our finest writers are now producing what is essentially science fiction (Cormac McCarthy's The Road), alternate history (Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union) and absurdist fantasy (the short stories of George Saunders). A hot author such as Jonathan Lethem proudly introduces the work of Philip K. Dick for the Library of America. Neil Gaiman, creator of the Sandman series, has achieved rock-star status. We are living in an age when genre fiction -- whether thrillers or graphic novels, children's books or sf -- seems far more exciting and relevant than well-wrought stories of adultery in Connecticut."
Frankly, the rest of the After Dark's review is lame and rushed, but that paragraph may be the most prescient encapsulation of literature today. I tend toward the literary in my choices, but one of my continual frustrations is how few talented writers are capturing today. This is particularly galling with Christian literature - it appears to me that even the magnificent Marilynne Robinson (Gilead) is recording the eternal past, not the present.
Genre is Today's World?
Yes, there's always the fear that when a book captures the moment today, it will read like yesterday's news tomorrow. But there's an equal risk that in attempting to capture the eternal, you end up with a bland timelessness that applies to no one. Part of meeting Ezra Pound's "literature is news that stays news" criteria is in taking a chance with your story.
Perhaps genre fiction encourages a certain risk within a predetermined framework? Murakami's best stories are often "detective stories/mysteries" that careen into the unexpected corners of urban alienation, metaphysics, and the nature of commitment - all while the unnamed protagonist's life remains at stake, sometimes in pulse-pounding fashion.
Graham Greene often created (Christian) literature among gun shots, spies, private investigators, and murderous environments. When he wasn't writing literature, he would write "entertainments," lighter fare about...gun shots, spies, private investigators, and murderous environments. Perhaps his is the template for literature (not fiction) today?
That may not be such a bad situation for all of us.
Labels: books, Literature, Murakami, Robinson
| Permalink | 
