Peggy's comments (member since May 28, 2008)

Peggy's comments from the Literary journalism / creative nonfiction group.

Good points, Tom. You're causing me to rethink my original ideas about this.
I know what you mean about the whole idea of genre--it's interesting, but if focused on too closely, can begin to distract from the actual work we admire.
I get annoyed with the sub-sub-sub categories created for rock and roll these days--it's become incredibly absurd to me.
Does it have a good beat? Can I dance to it?
So I wouldn't want to go too far down this road. It CAN lead to thinking in circles.
A great book is a great book, regardless of how we categorize it as a genre.

I agree that, caps or not, :-)this genre should not include memoir, for all of the reasons that Noran states.
I think it might have to be about something current, otherwise you're getting into history, not journalism.
Journalism--literary or not--implies current events to me. Now, some of what is literary journalism is now out of date (all of the Wolfe I listed, for example, or Capote's "In Cold Blood," but they still belong here because they were written and published concurrently with their topics.

Oops -- sorry -- in my enthusiasm, I added one of Tom Wolfe's novels, and not a very good one--Bonfire of the Vanities. I can't figure out how to take it off the darned shelf, so if anyone else knows how, please do!

Not that we need to . . .
One subgenre that comes to mind, probably because it was so influential for me as a journalist, is what was known as "new journalism." Tom Wolfe was one of the best-known practitioners. And a "sub-sub" genre of new journalism was, of course, gonzo journalism, practiced by Hunter S. Thompson and many imitators. New journalism is now sneered at, and deservedly so when looking at much of what developed out of the first wave--a sickening amount of what I call "I" journalism. The writer boldly inserts her/himself into the story in a literal way as if that is somehow going to automatically connect you emotionally to the tale or make it all seem more authentic.
Anyway, for me literary journalism is a genre that is dedicated to the facts, but NOT "just the facts, ma'am." It is fine story telling that provides the true and telling details that create nuance and that can be revelatory--that create the emotions and depth of response more commonly associated with fiction, theater, art.