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<blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8149592" data-attributes="member: 6704184">The history of art tells us only one thing with any real clarity. The critics and judges are more often hidebound idiots than people of any real insight. Pretending that their moronic biases against genre fiction have any merit does you no credit. &quot;The highest level&quot; is not a thing with literally any merit of any kind whatsoever. Half of the literary &quot;canon&quot; is mediocre crap that got into the canon by way of telling stuck up old men things that everyone else already knew and managing to sound pithy while doing so, or else told them what they wanted to hear while being mildly poetic. I love Hemingway. I find his work a genuine joy to read. Nothing he ever wrote is as well constructed, meaningful, beautiful, or worthy of accolade as any of a half dozen books by Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula LeGuin, Neil Gaiman, or the better half or so of Stephen Kings work (which varies in quality vastly more than most great authors, ranging from the sublime and profoundly important to just...really lame crap). Hell, Rothfuss is a better author than half of the Western Literary Canon, and I don't even put him in the top five of post Tolkein Fantasy authors. I would be willing to bet that Sword is playing devil's advocate, more than expressing a sentiment they actually believe. Still, it's a foolish sentiment that needs to be challenge quite harshly whenever it rears it's disgusting head. The literary canon is a bad joke. It has absolutely no validity, and it never has. That people take it seriously is an indictment of the human ability and willingness to actually examine and think about the world around them and the information they receive.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="doctorbadwolf, post: 8149592, member: 6704184"] The history of art tells us only one thing with any real clarity. The critics and judges are more often hidebound idiots than people of any real insight. Pretending that their moronic biases against genre fiction have any merit does you no credit. "The highest level" is not a thing with literally any merit of any kind whatsoever. Half of the literary "canon" is mediocre crap that got into the canon by way of telling stuck up old men things that everyone else already knew and managing to sound pithy while doing so, or else told them what they wanted to hear while being mildly poetic. I love Hemingway. I find his work a genuine joy to read. Nothing he ever wrote is as well constructed, meaningful, beautiful, or worthy of accolade as any of a half dozen books by Guy Gavriel Kay, Ursula LeGuin, Neil Gaiman, or the better half or so of Stephen Kings work (which varies in quality vastly more than most great authors, ranging from the sublime and profoundly important to just...really lame crap). Hell, Rothfuss is a better author than half of the Western Literary Canon, and I don't even put him in the top five of post Tolkein Fantasy authors. I would be willing to bet that Sword is playing devil's advocate, more than expressing a sentiment they actually believe. Still, it's a foolish sentiment that needs to be challenge quite harshly whenever it rears it's disgusting head. The literary canon is a bad joke. It has absolutely no validity, and it never has. That people take it seriously is an indictment of the human ability and willingness to actually examine and think about the world around them and the information they receive. [/QUOTE]

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