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/lit/ - Literature

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22896142 No.22896142 [Reply] [Original]

Why did Gene Wolfe waste his beautiful prose on genre fiction slop?

>> No.22896366

>>22896142
That's all he knew how to write.

>> No.22896563

>>22896142
His prose were a beautiful gift to genre fiction. He contributed more to fiction generally by elevating sci-fi and fantasy than if he had only wrote straightforward literary fiction. Was not a waste whatsoever.

>> No.22896585

>>22896142
That's what he wanted to write. Not everyone longs to be Tolstoy.

>> No.22896596

>>22896142
Hi. Can you actually tell me what makes BOTNS "genre fiction"?

>> No.22896599

>>22896596
its got like, spaceships and aliens and swords and shit

>> No.22896601

>>22896142
Some men god made poets, others fiction writers, others pseudo-intellects on lit writing about philosophy

>> No.22896611

>>22896142
Severian is a much better example of an unreliable narrator than anything I've read in modern literary-slop. He's also genuinely fun to read

>> No.22896612

>>22896611
>unreliable narrator
I hate this term.

>> No.22896614

>>22896612
Why?

>> No.22896619

>>22896585
Tolstoy had terrible prose

>> No.22896653

>>22896142
It's post-modern and only looks like genre. (You) were the dumbo all along.

>> No.22896685

>>22896142
have you read soldier of the mist?

>> No.22896690

>>22896614
It's unnecessary. Why would you just believe everything some nigga is saying? You just take his word for it without considering another POV? People like you are why propaganda is so effective.

>> No.22896716

>>22896142
Because he elevated it beyond slop.

>> No.22896758

>>22896653
>It's post-modern and only looks like genre
What does this mean

>> No.22896769

Why do you feel no shame in showing yourself to be a nitwit?

>> No.22896773

>>22896758
Nothing, same as all the other nonsense buzzwords used by retards being thrown around this thread.

>> No.22896835

Already by his time, so-called literary fiction was dead and there was nothing else in particular to write. All of the interesting possibilities for fiction that remain are contained within fantasy.

>> No.22896845

>>22896142
Because he wanted to write genre fiction

>> No.22896904

>>22896758
I think anon is implying that post modern authors often tended to play with genre to further literature. Not everything that has genre elements is genre fiction. Philip K. Dick is a good example, or perhaps Kazuo Ishiguro

>> No.22897823
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22897823

I feel like great literature is great literature regardless of whether it's "genre" or "literary." Hell, Blood Meridian is technically a genre book; it's a Western. The question is, does the book have things to say to readers in a universal sense? Does the book have a meaning that goes beyond a niche audience? I'd argue BOTNS does. It's notably philosophical in a lot of points. Theological, too.

>> No.22897852

Because he was a christard

>> No.22897861

>>22896690
... ... ... . . .

>> No.22898179

>>22896142
Guys, I chose Peace as my first Gene Wolfe book. The prose was absolutely beautiful but I couldn't grasp what the fuck was happening. I've never been filtered by a book so hard. Thanks, Gene

>> No.22898184
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22898184

>>22896619

>> No.22899162

>>22898179
I like that it's possible to read Peace and ignore everything supernatural (including the actual premise of the novel), but yeah, it's probably a little tricky for a first Wolfe book.
Read The Fifth Head of Cerberus, it's similarly tricky, but it gives far more obvious hints of what's going on.

>> No.22899220

>>22896142
Perhaps genre fiction was seen as virgin soil by talented writers after the collapse of high modernism? What could they have done in the artistic mainstream, arriving after the end?

>> No.22899238

>>22896142
The heart wants what it wants