Blood Meridian - still utterly and completely off topic

Transentient · 01 Oct 2006, 13:23 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: transentient at gmail.com (Transentient)
Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2006 09:23:14 -0400
Subject: (urth) Blood Meridian - still utterly and completely off topic
In-Reply-To: <200610010857.12352.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
References: <44CEC44B.6020906 at io.com>
	<f5238c30608021719i40fb6c75ydda60ab4fea1d60f at mail.gmail.com>
	<200609231055.59782.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
	<200610010857.12352.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>
Message-ID: <51AF7BE5-EEB8-4A74-92DF-022296726825 at gmail.com>

I also read this last month because it was mentioned on this list. I  
really thought it was excellent.

What I don't understand, though, is why this book is considered part  
of the "litchrature" genre and not "gorefest cowboy horror" genre. My  
copy of the book had a tagline or quote on the front cover that was  
like, "A classic American novel of regeneration through violence,"  
and my response to that is: wtf does that even mean?

It is interesting how, if a writer can get some "official literature"  
status early in their careers, whenever they choose to write  
something that is fantasy, horror, mystery, or even blatant sf (and  
sorry I can't think of any examples) the literary press will make  
excuses and struggle to point out that it isn't really genre, because  
it is written by a "serious" writer and not a "genre" writer.

But I haven't seen much crossover the other direction.

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