2006_11_01_archive

The return of Paul Ableman

I used to have a clipping from the Sunday Times circa 1987. It was a

one-off column by Paul Ableman (unknown to me then and since) in which

he discussed his mammoth diary project. He wrote thousands of words

about each day. I remember reading that he saw this as the future

novel, one step on from Joyce. It wasn't very convincing. Yet I kept

the clipping.

Only recently I wondered what had happened to him. Literary fame

hadn't come to him. So much for so much work. I remember the hunched

figure in the accompanying photograph.

Today, via Peter Stothard's blog, I discover that he died last week

and that he wasn't the lonely failure I'd assumed.

at 7:49 PM 1 comments

Genre fiction and literary prizes (again)

Lindesay Irvine of The Guardian's books blog admits it's an old

chestnut but asks it again anyway. Why do genre novels never win the

literary prizes?

While she recognises that there is a distinction between literary and

genre, a convincing definition is not offered, hence the demoralising

parade of ventriloquist dummies in the comment section:

I can remember feeling very cross that Barbara Vine's 'A

dark-adapted eye', and others of hers as well, were never on any

literary prize shortlists. I think this kind of book is often so

enjoyable that the fact that it can also be brilliantly written

passes people by.

What passes by this reader is that brilliant genre writing enables one

to pass it by. It's a shame the supposed guardians of literary culture

continue to set up the straw man of "beautiful/brilliant writing =

literary" for the yokels to burn down.

If there's one reason why this blog exists, it is to challenge the

assumptions of British culture about the 'literary'. Over two years

and longer, I've posted blogs defining literary fiction, and observed

that it tends to be only genre writers and their fans who are

perplexed about their exclusion from the literary prizes (which, I

must say, aren't terribly literary anyway). I've even asked an

apparently taboo question: why aren't literary writers given genre

awards? But it seems I'm having no impact and the dummies are winning

the day. At least in that respect I'm following in the finest literary

tradition.

at 6:28 PM 0 comments

December 2006 October 2006 Home

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My Shelfari Bookshelf

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

email address

Please contact me, Stephen Mitchelmore, at steve dot mitchelmore at

gmail dot com

Literary and other links

* British Literary Blogs

* ReadySteadyBook blog

* Spurious

* Book Depository: Editor's Corner

* The Literary Saloon

* The Existence Machine

* The Reading Experience

* Scarecrow Comment

* Guardian Books Blog

* The Quarterly Conversation

* KCRW Bookworm

* BookForum

* wood s lot

* Mountain 7

* Todd Colby's Glee Farm

* Three per cent

* Tales from the Reading Room

* The Bibliophilic Blogger

* The Penguin Blog

* TLS: Peter Stothard

* Mary Beard

* Nomadics: Pierre Joris

* Lenin's Tomb

* Dispatches from Zembla

* Waggish

More literary blogs

* Jonathan Swift's Journal to Stella

* The Best of New Writing on the Web

* John Self's Asylum

* Anatomy of Melancholy

* The Truth About Lies

* Nigel Beale: Nota Bene

* Thomas McGonigle's ABC of Reading

* Vertigo: Collecting WG Sebald

* Un Arbre dans la Ville

* The Wooden Spoon

* The Joyful Knowing

* The Reader Onliine

* In Abstentia Out

* Jacob Russell's Barking Dog

* eNotes Book Blog

* Diderot's Diary

Book buying

* *Steve's Wishlist*

* The Book Depository - Cheap books and free delivery

* Booksprice - price comparisons

* Abebooks

Favoured author sites

* Maurice Blanchot

* Thomas Bernhard (German equivalent)

* Gabriel Josipovici

* Peter Handke (German equivalent)

* Princeton Dante Project

* Proust: Temps Perdu

* The Kafka Project

* Charlotte Mandell

* Noam Chomsky

* John Pilger

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