In the previous newsletter, I quoted the great fantasist Ursula Le Guin’s disparaging remarks about what is commonly called formula fiction or category fiction, adding that I did not necessarily share her negative judgment. By category fiction, publishers and bookstores mean exactly that: when you walk into a bookstore, the books are organized by categories. “Fiction” means literary fiction: all the rest are category fiction, including thrillers, romances, erotica, horror novels, paranormal romances, and, yes, science fiction and fantasy. To which we may add categories that are either extinct or nearly extinct, like the Western, or represent sub-categories, such as the traditional mystery story, the hard-boiled detective story, and so on. A few books in a few of the categories are “literary” enough that they might be noticed in the
April 15, 2022
April 15, 2022
April 15, 2022
In the previous newsletter, I quoted the great fantasist Ursula Le Guin’s disparaging remarks about what is commonly called formula fiction or category fiction, adding that I did not necessarily share her negative judgment. By category fiction, publishers and bookstores mean exactly that: when you walk into a bookstore, the books are organized by categories. “Fiction” means literary fiction: all the rest are category fiction, including thrillers, romances, erotica, horror novels, paranormal romances, and, yes, science fiction and fantasy. To which we may add categories that are either extinct or nearly extinct, like the Western, or represent sub-categories, such as the traditional mystery story, the hard-boiled detective story, and so on. A few books in a few of the categories are “literary” enough that they might be noticed in the