To hell with accessibility.
I’ve heard genre writers complain about this. Complained it myself a few times. What makes X genre work less accessible, more accessible? How can these masses devour Harry Potter and yet not Earthsea? Why are such and such a writer considered too “genre” and yet Oryx and Crake or The Road rise up on the best seller lists?
I say to hell with it. To hell with comparing yourself with literary fiction, with literary success. Why is it important? It can’t be for the money- if it was, why not write Romance or Mysteries (books that bring in much more money than SF/F and Literary combined)? If it’s for respectability and the cannon of literature- why is that important? Should it even be important?
Is it because writers of genre feel like they have to explain themselves to the masses that just don’t “get it”? Who say they don’t like fantasy because of “all those dragons and elves. It’s escapism” or science fiction because “all those spaceships and faster than light travel, it’s escapism”?
I just came to turns with this not too long ago. I write weird fiction. Not subtle, not little, not strange. I write weird with a capital WAH WAH. I write not just fantasy, but balls out gonzo surrealism. And for awhile, I must admit, I felt like a misfit. I felt weird every time I had to explain to people what I wrote, how I wrote, etc. But why should we care? What is so important about a perceived accessibility?
Feel free to mock me in the comments.
Feel much the same sometimes. Then I remind myself–and this is lit. according to Berry–genre is just a set of clothes.
The story’s the thing. Or character’s epiphany.
Or, “Hey, what do you write?”
Me: “Whatever the heck I want.”
Exactly!
i hates these computer of mine, i writes about this big rambling exotic locals and philosophystudded raceshorses and genregenericsportcoats, and biographical is in all our works and this and that, but then my computer, it all eats it, locks up for no reasons and comes back and locks and is crazy mind of its own, dammit. history is written by the historians or somethings? nonono, now i forgets it all and am depressed of my computer. sometimes i thinks if i take axe to it i would be much better, i ask so little of my tech and yet, it always refuses and clunks along at the barely minimums. ahh well. maybe manana, nows i about go to werk. we must talks yes,
benny
Umm…. That benny guy is a little creepy… Srlsly.
***
But in response to the post — I feel like this too. It’s a type of lonliness/isolation. Ever watched any Nick Roeg movies (Examples: The Man Who Fell to Earth, Performance, Gold, Don’t Look Now, Walkabout)? Theres a book of analysis on his work that’s called “A Cinema of Lonliness”. There’s a kind of always-being-pushed-to-the-edges-of-society/reality in it. A strong, everpresent surrealism and dream logic.
Hah! Benny is an old friend. He’s not creepy at all. You’re just easy to creep out.
I don’t feel isolated at all. My strangeness has found me other strange writers. In fact, writing in my strangeness has pushed me out of lonliness, out of solitude.
[...] To hell with accessibility [...]
There are people in my family who describe Harry Potter as totally bizarre and surreal . . .
[...] To hell with accessibility [...]