After centuries of contempt by literary types a science fiction novel, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, has won the top literary prize for fiction, the Pulitzer. The Road is about a father and son traveling through a post apocalyptic future world.

Prizes such as the Pulitzer are usually strictly limited to what is known as literary fiction. Literary fiction is a term used by stuck up academics to put down the average reader. A literary novel is one that is driven by the characters rather than the plot, of high quality that does not fit into a traditional genre mold – of course there are many exceptions to this rule. Books that are both genre fiction and literary fiction may include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and now The Road.

Many people would argue, desperately and pathetically, that this book is not science fiction. Science fiction is any story that is told in a plausible future. The world in the road is one that would be very similar to Earth after a large asteroid or comet strike – sounds like science fiction to me. (I can’t really say anything much about this book, as I haven’t read it … yet.)

Many awards and magazines that publish fiction have strict rules – no genre fiction. Over the years I have become very tired of defending science fiction from those who hold it in low regard – of course these people have never read a science fiction book. These highbrow snobs are trying to tell me that every single book that I have on my shelf has zero artistic merit because it is science fiction.

Finally, the end has come to this ridiculous distinction between literary and genre fiction – we can hope anyway.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Funny, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.