tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323600560922370.post4076134613660387060..comments2023-11-02T02:58:46.916-07:00Comments on "The Virus will be Televised." Climate change too!: "It's good to see a concerted pushback in the West against Amitav Ghosh's outdated and ivory tower prejudice against genre novels." Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323600560922370.post-88330969608688589422016-10-31T03:30:57.892-07:002016-10-31T03:30:57.892-07:00Bannerjee, well said, and thanks for adding your p...Bannerjee, well said, and thanks for adding your point of view. dr ghosh is a brilliant novelist, one of the best, but his views on genre novels need some re-evaluation on his part. hopefully, he is listeningDANIELBLOOMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05130493903696077379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323600560922370.post-88000682121015606952016-10-31T03:04:48.115-07:002016-10-31T03:04:48.115-07:00I am a Ghosh fan and have read most of his books b...I am a Ghosh fan and have read most of his books by now - and needless to say I have enjoyed them and look forward to reading more, but I have to admit he has a prejudice against genre books, including sci fi-s. In his latest book The Great Derangement on climate concerns he ha written quite patronizingly about genre fiction. He shares this scorn with other literary writers. indrabloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12797534131912600541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323600560922370.post-25217028073837049532016-10-29T21:38:49.523-07:002016-10-29T21:38:49.523-07:00Another comment said, this one taking Dr Ghosh'...<br />Another comment said, this one taking Dr Ghosh's side: <br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />"I did not see that prejudice everyone here is accusing Dr Ghosh of. Actually, I think he argued in favour of genre novels, but said that they too did not really come to grips with climate change. I tend to agree with that. There are exceptions, but mostly genre uses a dystopian scenario to shock and thrill, and sometimes even suggests the inevitability of such dystopia. As someone who has been teaching the sci-fi, genre, gothic fiction for years – because I took and take them seriously – I am now becoming a bit worried about the ways in which they actually obfuscate serious matters, and allow students/readers to avoid thinking about them. Of course, there are exceptions. As Michael Moorcock, himself a genre writer, concedes too – when he expresses his hatred of Tolkien-type genre writing. <br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />''The Guardian commenters are probably after Ghosh because he has been very sceptical of the liberal-leftist agenda that defines them… ''<br />DANIELBLOOMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05130493903696077379noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7432323600560922370.post-36423030743593747182016-10-29T04:40:43.681-07:002016-10-29T04:40:43.681-07:00The comments below the line are well-informed and ...<br />The comments below the line are well-informed and many focus on the self-inflicted nature of Ghosh’s dilemma: an obsession with the validity of genres, and a casual disrespect for the work of so many authors whose work he dismisses because he thinks their work isn't 'literary fiction', while berating authors he admires but who he claims have not contributed to cli-fi, or not contributed enough.<br /><br />It is absolutely the case that many authors have, for a long time now, explored the human condition in climate-related dystopian settings; it seems very unfortunate that 'popular fiction' does not, in Ghosh’s view, appear to count - and this despite the plain fact that if one wishes to reach people, popular fiction remains a more cogent vehicle for mass dissemination than literary fiction. By the same token, to complain that 'literary fiction' fails to acknowledge the serious nature of the problem is an attempt to suborn literature - art itself actually - in the service of a single agenda, and no matter how well-meaning, history suggests that the value and integrity of art is frequently perverted by the deliberate inclusion of gross polemic no matter how cunning the disguise. When art is reduced to the status of a mere conveyance for a political or social agenda, it is diminished in all but the most skilled hands.<br /><br />Then there is the issue of story telling in such a context. The climate has no voice or volition. A novel cannot be 'about' climate change; the climate is an environment in which people's stories are revealed. That their stories are shaped by their environment should be a given, but since climate change hasn't delivered its payload yet, stories must necessarily be set in the future - and future fiction of any kind - literate or not - will be consigned to the indignity of inadequate categorisation, a function of markets, not literature. We can call it future fiction, sci-fi, cli-fi or whatever, but the genre does no great service to the work.<br /><br />A failure to understand that the novel will always transcend the genres into which it gets stuffed like so many supermarket pre-packs in a trolley is also a failure to acknowledge the value and quality of popular novels. It is, however, a fine platform on which to build the kind of snobbery and disdain that is so often itself characterised as elitist.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com