Is “genre” writing good literature?
I have also added a few works of my own choice in opposition to majority scholarly and critical opinion because well, because I think the scholars and critics are wrong. Doesn’t this go against what I’ve said about seeking historical consensus? Not entirely, as such works I have included are generally those that the public in generalor a good portion of the publichave embraced. For the most part, these disagreements occur over twentieth-century works. Many of the more controversial decisions involve what may be considered genre writing science fiction, detective stories, “women’s novels” and so on. I could argue that Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler and Daphne Du Maurier have had as great an impact on modern writing and modern life as any author with greater “literary” credentials. My real reason for including their novels though is that they offer great rewards to their readers. They may be as meaningful to readers of the 20th century as the gripping stories of Beowulf, Song of Roland,
