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I just read this book about the origins of fairy tales and it wasn't very good but one interesting point it did make: When the Romantics were exploring fantasy/fairy/myth and coining terms like "secondary worlds" and "willing suspension of disbelief" (Coleridge), they had a pretty simple view of it. Realist fiction dealt with the real world and things that could definitely happen. Secondary world fiction involved things that couldn't happen, whether it be fantasyland101 or just fairies hanging out in the real world. Or like, Rapunzel and Snow White. It often feels to be like magical realism or literature where fantastic poo poo happens is just labeled as such because it's written well. Marketing! I recently finished reading this book called The Book of Strange New Things. I liked it a lot. It's about this preacher who travels to another planet to minister to the natives while his wife write him letters about Earth falling apart. It's a baldly sci-fi premise. But I guess since it's written well and introspective and not D&D porn, it's actually straight literature or 'genre defying'. Sometimes you see interesting exceptions like Coetzee being nominated for a Phillip K Dick award.
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Sep 12, 2014 22:41
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I didn't really care for Ducks, Newburyport. At first I thought it was dumb, then I came to enjoy it, but by page 500 I had had enough saw everything there was to see. I finished it anyway due to sunk cost fallacy. By bombarding you with useless details, it heightens the 'insight' delivered by political insights, which is a neat trick a couple of times but then gets old and transparent. edit: there's a light plot (about the mountain lion) that becomes more apparent as the book goes on. I've read a couple of "one sentence" novels since. Zone by Mathias Enard was neat / horrific but I don't think my Mediterranean history is anywhere near the point to fully appreciate it. Solar Bones by by Mike McKormack was excellent. ultrachrist fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Oct 13, 2020 |
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Oct 13, 2020 22:34
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