But... but...

[snycock]

I've been working on a fandom pimp on Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint series for smallfandomfest, and as part of that I was reading the Wikipedia entry on interstitial fiction, which she's credited as kind of inventing (with a bunch of other people) in the mid-90's

Comments

[mab_browne]

science fiction that embodies themes of the human experience that are usually central to literature.

So I guess that Ursula LeGuin, Joanna Russ, Octavia Butler, or Kate Wilhelm were all scotch mist then, huh...

[snycock]

They were miraculously brought into existence when the term was coined... ;-)

[thismaz]

interstitial fiction, which she's credited as kind of inventing (with a bunch of other people) in the mid-90's.
Interstitial fiction is defined as fiction that crosses genres or combines features of genre fiction and literature

That sounds like fiction, to me. Some people do seem to get hung up on dividing life into categories and then deciding that the divisions are absolute, don't they?

[snycock]

I know, I don't really get that at all - I mean, I know it's helpful in a bookstore to have divisions, rather than have everything in one huge "fiction" category, but a lot of the time it doesn't make sense.

[t_verano]

Oh sheesh. Just really. Saying that 'genre' fiction by definition doesn't include any elements of 'literature' makes me want to gnash my teeth.

[snycock]

I agree. I'm kind of prepping myself to hear that, because I'm sure I'm going to hear it a lot when I take this fiction writing class in the fall. But I sure don't understand it - I can think of loads of science fiction and fantasy that have elements of literature.

[lisafeld]

Ngh. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt and ask if she might have meant combining the experimental techniques of literary fiction with the themes of SFF. (And even that is pushing it, since SFF has been using unreliable narrator, out-of-sequence storytelling and fractured or warped POV for ages and ages...)

I get so tired of asking why it's always Piers Anthony against John Updike instead of Ursula LeGuin against Nicholas Sparks (if you want to talk about literary merit versus shallow commercialism). I've never yet changed a single idiot's mind on the subject; they like their prejudices and they stick to them.

[snycock]

I'm girding my loins to possibly have this argument in my fiction writing class this fall and I might steal your analogy, because that's a fantastic one. Plus I think we might be assigned both Bradbury and Octavia Butler...