[ SECRET POST #2197 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2197 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 048 secrets from Secret Submission Post #314.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's difficult to explain... but generally speaking, general fiction is more plot driven. The whole point is to tell the story.
"Lit fic" tends to be less plot driven and more character or concept driven. So it might have themes of love or death or something like that, and the characters and story are used to explore the themes.

That's why general fiction gets sneered at as "worthless" because it's not trying to say anything about humanity and the universe. And it's why lit fic gets mocked as "boring and pretentious" because there might be pages and pages of the author talking about the ocean.

[(Anonymous)]

also before i get mobbed by angry sf fans or purveyors of the literary realms - BOTH have value in different ways.

Nothing wrong with telling a good story.
Nothing wrong with trying to create meaning.

[(Anonymous)]

I object to your implication that sf is necessarily devoid of meaning or literary value.

For real, though, I do think there are works of speculative fiction and fantasy that have real literary value. And I definitely think that there's no strong reason to assume that it's impossible for a work of SF to have literary value.

[(Anonymous)]

+1 to this. In fact, I think speculative fiction is uniquely able to grapple with questions about humanity in ways that realistic fiction cannot.

[cassandraoftroy]

+2. In my experience, a lot of speculative fiction excels at "creating meaning" -- meaning and a good story are in no way mutually exclusive.

[(Anonymous)]

+3 Someone who thinks that speculative fiction is devoid of meaning or literary value has obviously never read Sturgeon. Granted there are a plethora of other names I could mention, but Sturgeon is the finest example of how amazing and meaningful and pure that SF can be.

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Yes. Totally down with what you're saying, Sturgeon is one of my favorite writers ever, and "The Man Who Lost The Sea" and "Saucer of Loneliness" pretty much bring me to tears any time I read through them - and I really think "Man Who Lost The Sea" is my favorite short story ever. There are maybe other SF writers who I think are on the whole better, but I don't think there's any who writes more beautifully than Sturgeon, and there's none who mean more to me.

You're cool, anon.

[(Anonymous)]

"That's why general fiction gets sneered at as "worthless" because it's not trying to say anything about humanity and the universe."

Except this claim is ridiculous and wrong, and can only be made by someone who's never actually read any of the fiction they're sneering at. Most of the plot-driven fiction I've read (which is typically very character-driven as well, with interesting and three-dimensional characters) has a great deal to say about humanity and the universe, with plenty of thematic and philosophical elements. They're just worked into and through the narrative, rather than taking up the entire book and not connecting with anything tangible. Almost all the SF/F I've ever read has had social commentary or a thematic point about the nature of humanity buried in its story.

"And it's why lit fic gets mocked as "boring and pretentious" because there might be pages and pages of the author talking about the ocean."

It's not just that there are "pages and pages of the author talking about the ocean," but that those pages are seemingly unconnected to anything else in the book and devoid of any actual meaning; they're a lot of rambling nonsense that tries to pretend it's deep and thematic, when really it's just kind of masturbatory and doesn't say anything actually meaningful.