Notes for when I have a moment

Edward Docx inherits the mantle of Literary Twitness with his article for the Guardian,   "Are Stieg Larsson and Dan Brown a match for literary fiction?: The Millennium trilogy and Da Vinci Code authors sell millions – but according to novelist Edward Docx their books are 'amateurish'. Here, he argues that even good genre fiction doesn't bear comparison with works of true literary merit."

Yes, I'll confess I felt guilty the last time I called someone a Literary Twit, but this time it's really deserved. Thankfully, Nick Mamatas already has the take down, because I'm pressed for time right now:

"The very worst of genre fiction—Dan Brown is namechecked in the headline—is compared to some ideal of literary fiction. Forget any book to book comparison, or any attempt to read the best of genre fiction and compare it to the best of contemporary literary fiction. Author Edward Docx is shameless in his error as well, going so far as to say that, 'proponents of genre fiction are not sincere about the limitations even of the best of what they do...' without demonstrating that those limitations exist (and that similar limitations do not exist in literary fiction.) Did you spot a second minor error, by the way? He conflates genre fiction's proponents with its authors."

Funny. I've made that exact point about arguments about poetry genres, too ...