Has any modern writer blended genre fiction and literature?

[Anonymous No.8247316]

I love genre fiction. i love stories with swords and magic, advanced alien societies, and stories that scare me shitless

After taking a few english lit class I've realized how shitty the writing is in the majority of popular scifi,fantasy and horror novels

are there any MODERN genre fiction authors whose works could be considered "literature" or of "literary merit"?

[Anonymous No.8247317]

Define 'literary' and 'literary merit'

you sure you're just looking for decent stories?

[Anonymous No.8247321]

>>8247316

McCarthy writes the best westerns.

[Anonymous No.8247328]

>>8247316
Kazuo Ishiguro has written 'literary' fantasy (The Buried Giant) and sci-fi (Never Let Me Go).

From the other angle, Gene Wolfe is generally cited as a genre author good enough to be considered literary.

[Anonymous No.8247339]

Gene Wolfe (Book of the New Sun) and Mervyn Peake (Gormenghast trilogy) for straight literary fantasy. I'd like to know what could be literary science fiction.

[Anonymous No.8247360]

Depends on what you consider modern, and what you're willing to forgive.

Most genre authors have some sort of weakness.

I'd recommend Hyperion and Malazan: Book of the Fallen.

They both have fairly similar problems. Cliche imagery / aesthetic choices, and the occasional tendency to get bogged down in archaeological minutiae.

If you can stomach that, they're some of the best in their respective genres.

[Anonymous No.8247458]

>>8247339
Pynchon and Dick

[Anonymous No.8247474]

>>8247316
david mitchell is one of the best examples of this.

[Anonymous No.8247481]

>>8247474
you mean that reddit fuck-face who thinks he's all 'cunning wit' and 'the next blackadder'. fuck off.

[Anonymous No.8247484]

this
also book theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Io_5vpBML4

[Anonymous No.8247497]

>>8247481
he's an asshole, no denying that. that doesn't change that OP would love cloud atlas.

[Anonymous No.8247546]

I'll be releasing my fantasy epic soon, and it will blow all literary fiction from the century out of the water.

[Anonymous No.8247548]

>>8247546
Yes it will sweetie.

[Anonymous No.8247661]

>>8247481
>>8247497
er
you know there's more than one person called david mitchell, right?

[Anonymous No.8247665]

>>8247316

Stanisław Lem was one of the most literary SF authors.
Much of Borges' fiction could be classified as genre, either fantasy, horror, mystery, or otherwise.

[Anonymous No.8247760]

Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light and Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination are both excellent.

[Anonymous No.8247767]

>>8247316
P e t e r S. B e a g l e
e
t
e
r

S.

B
e
a
g
l
e

Seriously. Specifically A Fine and Private Place and The Last Unicorn.

[Anonymous No.8247768]

Strugatsky brothers.

[Anonymous No.8247771]

>>8247481
Different David Mitchell, senpai.

[Anonymous No.8247774]

>>8247546
We all thought this. Then we all gave up.

[Anonymous No.8247777]

fun fact : "literary" and "genre" is a false dichotomy, and the distinction doesn't actually exist.

[Anonymous No.8247789]

>>8247777
checked.

Also, you are wrong. Genre is defined by its tropes rather than its themes, and almost always it is written/read solely for entertainment.

[Anonymous No.8247793]

>>8247789
Its more of a marketing meme than anything

in practice its damn near an illusion

[Anonymous No.8247794]

>>8247789
>read solely for entertainment
That's the correct reason to read though.

[Anonymous No.8247796]

>>8247794
I don't feel like wasting my time with you, fuckhead.

[Anonymous No.8247801]

>>8247316
>I love genre fiction. i love stories with swords and magic, advanced alien societies
Not literature, but I don't think I ever saw a better blend between high fantasy and sci-fi than pic related. But then again, I was I kid when I read it

[Anonymous No.8247802]

>>8247796
Good.

[Anonymous No.8247805]

>>8247789

there are a bunch of literary tropes too, literary works that rely them can be just as bad as genre fiction. the best genre fiction transcends its tropes.

[Anonymous No.8247809]

>>8247805
The only real bad literary trope I can think of, or at least the worst one, is people drinking lemonade on their porch.

[Anonymous No.8247812]

>>8247789

there are a bunch of literary tropes too, relying on them makes for literary fiction that might as well be another genre category. and the best genre fiction transcends its tropes.

[Anonymous No.8247821]

>>8247809

"the main character is a writer" is the most obvious one. it's not always bad but it can be a really lazy way of trying to be literary.

[Anonymous No.8247833]

>>8247546
>from the century
You mean the past 16 years. I'd tell you not to be a faggot but it's too late for that it seems.

[Anonymous No.8247840]

>>8247789
>imlying po-moshit doesnt have tropes
>implying poetry doesnt have tropes
>implying epics dont have tropes
>impying """"literary""""" novels arent also made for entertainment
if you're gonna define something as genre based on tropes and entertainment value then the whole fucking western cannon is a saturday morning cartoon.

[Anonymous No.8247841]

>>8247833
A century is 100 years. You're just categorizing.

[Anonymous No.8247847]

>>8247840
>>8247805
I said that genre is DEFINED by its tropes. Goddamn, I didn't say other fiction didn't have tropes.

[Anonymous No.8247851]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZvcKB9vQO0


These guys pretty much confirm that "le literary vs genre" meme is just marketing bullshit and nothing more.

[Anonymous No.8247852]

Have you people even read the master and slave dialectic? I certainly haven't

[Anonymous No.8247865]

>>8247777

>go to the bookstore
>start mixing all the sci-fi/fantasy/horror/romance/mystery books with all the general literature books
>store employees get mad and tell me to leave
>"lol it's all the same you plebs!"

[Anonymous No.8247872]

>>8247316
That picture captures the juvenile arrogance of science fiction so well.

[Anonymous No.8247875]

>>8247872
Or ignorance*

[Anonymous No.8247877]

>>8247481
nigga fuck off Peep Show is the shit

[Anonymous No.8247878]

>>8247360
Read ONLY Hyperion, don't read any of the other fuckin books in that series.

[Anonymous No.8247892]

>>8247821
Stephen King is literary you knob.

[Anonymous No.8247894]

>>8247892
*Isn't

[Anonymous No.8247943]

>>8247789
Yeah, that's a modern interpretation. In the seventies there was no distinction between high level science fiction and literature, in the forties no distinction between high level fantasy and literature, etc...

[Anonymous No.8247964]

>>8247847
but there's nothing stopping a genre work as defined by its tropes from being literature, so there's no dichotomy and you're still wrong.

[Anonymous No.8247968]

>>8247777
Fun fact: you're a pleb

[Anonymous No.8247971]

>>8247801
How is that at all related

[Anonymous No.8248014]

>genre fiction

[Anonymous No.8248032]

>>8247316
I'm actually writing a book that blends genre and literature. I won't tell you how, but I have 50,000 words of a conglomeration of pure linguistic elegance and genre shit. I'll eventually post here once it's amazon self published.

Might be the novel to define a generation, might be total horeshit.

[Anonymous No.8249073]

[Anonymous No.8249080]

[Anonymous No.8249108]

[Anonymous No.8249218]

Snowcrash and Diamond Age are verging on it, because they deal with some heavy themes but end up focusing more on genre fiction.
Anathem goes heavy on the philosophy and uses the fiction part to explore those ideas, usually from two angles.

[Anonymous No.8249237]

>>8249218
im really exited to read Anathem. mostly because of it's girth and pulsating thickness. my copy has a nice musty sweaty smell and the cloth binding gets moist in hot days.