[LMB] genres and Miles

[Paula Lieberman]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Natali Vilic" <natali.vilic at gmail.com>
To: "'Discussion of the works of Lois McMaster Bujold.'" 
<lois-bujold at lists.herald.co.uk>
Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [LMB] genres and Miles



> Hence the placement of the books in libraries can become very
> confusing for both librarians and users.
>
> I personally find it very irritating, the way some
> SF readers/critics are elitists in favour of SF against

Genre is commercial, genre is primarily a marketing tool and a binning 
device for readers.


> Fantasy, the same way as "serious literature" readers/critics
> are elitists in favour of "serious literature" as they

Different people, different metrics--some things are invisible to some 
people... they simply don't have a mindset that the material resonates 
positivey with

> define it, against both SF and Fantasy, as well as Mystery,
> Romance, Westerns and such. Mr. Suvin defended SF against
> such elitism, that much I know (I have but superficial knowledge
> about his work), but according to the above, he was also
> a kind of elitist. IMHO, there is no justification for not
> extending his argument (95% of published poetry is bad and
> yet no one refuses to analyze poetry) on other popular genres.