Steve Clackson posts a CBC piece wondering Is Fiction Dead?
At BookExpo America a few years ago I heard much talk that strongly narrative nonfiction was beginning to displace fiction. I think the key here is "strongly narrative." Fiction that tells a good story continues to sell. But I see no evidence that "the war in Iraq ... has fuelled readers’ appetites for political non-fiction." Fiction that eschews narrative in favor of style and interior musings seems to appeal to a minority of readers (but often gets highly praised by reviewers). It's not all that different from movies: The movies we're supposed to take seriously as "art" are "intimate" indie flicks. But I can't be the only person who has noticed how little variety there often is among the idependents. If you have the Independent Film Channel on cable, channel surf there from time to time: Amazing how many of the films are shot the same way, with the same sort of lighting, the same sort of sweet-melacholy score, the same mood.
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