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Then what does set them apart from novels with better reputations, if not style? I don't think it can be just the topic, and I don't believe it's just some arbi
by andreasvc 11y ago
Then what does set them apart from novels with better reputations, if not style? I don't think it can be just the topic, and I don't believe it's just some arbitrary value that society assigns to what is high vs. low brow.
- lmm 11y agoIt is arbitrary. Compare e.g. treatment of Jane Austen (or heck, Shakespeare) at the time and today. Academic literature forms a clique (I mean this descriptively rather than pejoratively). The critics and the writers all know each other, are largely the same people.
- mercurial 11y agoWell, compare Le Carré's writing and De Villiers. Or if you want to compare two right-wing French writers, take Vladimir Volkoff and De Villiers. Volkoff forgot more about writing than De Villiers ever knew.
- andreasvc 11y agoBut the general public is not looking to academic scholars to figure out what they should approve of. Critics generally don't care to review Harlequin or SAS novels and the people that read them definitely don't need their opinions. I don't follow what argument you're making nor why it makes the matter arbitrary.