Jane, thanks for your comment re genre fiction, pulp fiction, and my library post. I confess to being totally flabbergasted by your comment that I am a snob and elitist culturally. What planet are you on? Certainly, not planet Eyewear. Anyone who ever reads this blog will know it is wildly and widely open to popular culture, genre fiction, kitsch, and breaking down barriers between high and low culture.
Have you ever read Eyewear on James Bond, Tarantino, or Ross Macdonald, for instance? Or, have you ever read my own poetry collections, which are filled with positive homages to Hitchcock, Chandler, and a variety of pulp and film noir sources. Perhaps you fail to recall my anthology celebrating "B-Poetry". Or forget I worked in TV for a decade, writing for schlock like Teenage Ninja Turtles, and Japanese anime like Sailor Moon? Or perhaps you ignore my work for Penthouse? In short - geez, come off it, Jane! You can't protest about one post without reading it within the context of the blog as a whole. If Eyewear isn't open to pulp, what is? My point was, Patterson is rubbish pulp, and Fry is a poor salesman for contemporary poetry.
Have you ever read Eyewear on James Bond, Tarantino, or Ross Macdonald, for instance? Or, have you ever read my own poetry collections, which are filled with positive homages to Hitchcock, Chandler, and a variety of pulp and film noir sources. Perhaps you fail to recall my anthology celebrating "B-Poetry". Or forget I worked in TV for a decade, writing for schlock like Teenage Ninja Turtles, and Japanese anime like Sailor Moon? Or perhaps you ignore my work for Penthouse? In short - geez, come off it, Jane! You can't protest about one post without reading it within the context of the blog as a whole. If Eyewear isn't open to pulp, what is? My point was, Patterson is rubbish pulp, and Fry is a poor salesman for contemporary poetry.
Comments
According to his Collected Letters, Philip Larkin's favourite author was Dick Francis who has just died. I think the important thing is to read whatever you want rather than what you feel you ought to. I remember wading through Tom Jones by Henry Fielding simply because a teacher had recommended it. I didn't enjoy it much and wasted weeks of my life ploughing through it.
Best wishes from Simon
I agree with you about Fry and Patterson. Although I like Fry, and think him a decent man, the media do tend to hold him as some sort of polymath, whose opinions should be regarded as almost sacrosanct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMQNH9G5nbI
I tend to think most literary fiction is dull and unreadable. I'd rather have Terry Pratchett. At least he makes me smile. When I'm not reading the latest Robert Sheppard, I'd rather read something like a good detective novel. I don't see what's wrong with that.
I like SF and other genre (non-'literary') fiction, provided that it is written well enough; i.e. that the sentences don't tend to fall asleeep before you can finish them. I tried Dan Brown and half a page was enough, nay, too much. Ursula K. LeGuin and Patricia Highsmith can be very good indeed, as can Stephen King when he refrains from doing what he almost always does: binging on an interesting idea/plot/story till it busts its waistband; his short stories are occasionally excellent. Not sure what 'literary fiction' is exactly. Ian McEwan? Hilary Mantel? Tobias Wolff is one of my favourite American writers. Would these count, or are they too low or middlebrow? And why should anyone care?
My comparing Jane to Partridge was to point out her occasional tactlessness, which I find quite endearing and human.
"Perhaps you didn't Jeffrey, but I think one should always be wary of pigeonholing; would Jane categorise YOUR own poetry as 'light verse'?"
I have just increased my browser text size to a larger setting, and will be getting my eyes tested when the nearest optician is next open!
I DON'T categorise my poetry as light verse, as it happens. Anyone who has ever read light verse would realise what a ludicrous comparison that is. And designed to flame me into some mouth-foaming rant, I daresay.
Luckily, I'm too busy to care. Though if a comparison with song is what categorises light verse, I'm in spectacularly good company. Cf Vergilius : arma virumque cano et cetera ...