jvj

There seems to be a bit of a dichotomy within publishing/writing that divides books into works of literature and genre. This apparently expresses itself in the way things ares are to be marketed etc. Why does this have to be? Surely a work can be both literary and belong to a genre- does Lord of the Rings not fit into this category?

I guess part of it comes down to how you define one or the other, but if anyone has any opinions on the matter, I'd like to know! This is in part inspired by something I read a while ago- a website where Katherine Kerr, amongst others, wrote pieces about what 'Genre" is. I suppose I don't like the term, because it seems to imply that fantasy/SF (or other genres) are somehow inferior to literature. I disagree.

Thoughts?

I have never actually thought about this before, so I went to Wikipedia and looked for Genre. They have a pretty intensive write up on genre and genre specifics. 'Twas interesting, but now my head is spinning...