...people are too stupid to understand what kind of reading they like or dislike. ;P
*That* is the attitude that drives people from reading. The whole "it's horrible that people don't read, but they're ignorant if they don't like the classics" thing. Why the hell does it matter what people like, as long as they're reading?
I'm a genre writer, with stories that usually fall somewhere in the suspense/horror/sci-fi realms. Those realms are practically dead in the reading marketplace, and still I write there. I could easily be a successful romance novelist, or could try my hand at writing true "literature" (whatever that means), but I don't like romance novels (personal taste, that) and am not all that impressed by the concept of "literature" to the point where the writing is supposed to take some kind of predence over the story. For me, story is supposed to come first and I tend to prefer the genre categories because they're more likely to feature tales in which the story is the important part, not narcissism over the writing. Does that make me too stupid to enjoy other writing? Who knows? I'd like to think it doesn't. Either way, I don't care. |
