The thing is, in all these stories, by numerous authors of literary fiction, characters have this hyperreal awareness of their own misery, and comment upon it.
Well, character insight is a common feature in literary fiction. So. Uh. Is that the problem? For what it's worth, stories about inner turmoil and man vs. self conflict are my favorite. Hence my attraction to literary fiction.
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So this is the game he wants to play. Write indeterminable things as fact.
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... I don't believe anyone has declared subtext as such? But why anyone would have beef with subtext, a technique that adds emotional and intellectual depth to any story in
any genre when done flawlessly, is beyond me. (Was this originally a rant about Ms. Hempel?)
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I thought he just said people were miserable.
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Oh, go away. I've
never approached literary fiction with the expectation for it to match up with my own experiences or expressions. Who does that? I read literary fiction because, like Andy Warhol, I like boring things.
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Speculative fiction covers genres like fantasy, science fiction, post-/apocalyptic, horror, and so on. Is he trying to tell me that none of those genres have cliché crises? Does he honestly read fiction as "training" guides? And while I agree no one has LITERAL experiences with supernatural crises, we all have experiences with the UNIVERSAL THEMES. (Loud noises!) Death, courage, fear, sadness, what have you. Literary fiction just cuts out the fantastical elements.
ElsaM and
willietheshakes have stated this better than I could.
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Or, perhaps, he hasn't read much literary fiction.
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I think we all can agree that an empty room alone isn't universal, but
neither is a ghost.
P.S. It's hilarious that the author is asserting no one experiences grief the same, but in the dead child example, apparently no one could grieve with ~subtext.
NO.
BYE.
In short, I don't like anything in the blog entry. I know many people don't care for literary fiction, but I've never read anything like that before. Subtext. Really now.