tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641443496612927441.post8039427107907939598..comments2023-09-11T05:46:29.728-03:00Comments on Novel Readings: Inger Ash Wolfe, The CallingRohan Maitzenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12111722115617352412noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641443496612927441.post-44806357058404146752008-09-11T09:08:00.000-03:002008-09-11T09:08:00.000-03:00I was thinking of Banville / Black too in this con...I was thinking of Banville / Black too in this context. I've only read <I>Christine Falls</I>, but that one certainly seemed a genuine engagement with the possibilities of the genre. Mystery writers like Ian Rankin and P. D. James also use the conventions of the genre to do some very 'literary' things; I would have thought someone who read their work (and not only theirs, of course) would see howRohan Maitzenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12111722115617352412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641443496612927441.post-31061132431357443012008-09-11T00:04:00.000-03:002008-09-11T00:04:00.000-03:00Yes, that makes sense. It's instructive to compar...Yes, that makes sense. It's instructive to compare Wolfe's book to those by Benjamin Black (aka John Banville), which, although in a different vein, take the genre seriously. My point isn't that genre is fixed, but that the tension between constraint and innovation is one of the things that most appeals, to me at least, about genre fiction.dorian stuberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10069923023770087626noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641443496612927441.post-73871031094928227862008-09-10T08:34:00.000-03:002008-09-10T08:34:00.000-03:00it condescends to its own genreDorian, that's real...<I>it condescends to its own genre</I><BR/><BR/>Dorian, that's really well put, and I too get grumpier as I reflect on this aspect of <I>The Calling</I>. It rather sends the message that the 'literary' author considers this kind of writing a form of slumming--though the same set-up and characters could have been used to very different effect. Perhaps this is a writer who has not read much or Rohan Maitzenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12111722115617352412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-641443496612927441.post-50757627036956046402008-09-08T23:04:00.000-03:002008-09-08T23:04:00.000-03:00I just finished this, and I have to agree. Althou...I just finished this, and I have to agree. Although I inititially found the use of the murderer's perspective to be more effective than usual (precisely because of the uncanny possibilities--the juxtaposition of known and unknown, horror and comfort--that are then later abandoned), this reticence is forgotten in favour of grotesqueries that don't do anything with the book's Gothic possibilitiesdorian stuberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10069923023770087626noreply@blogger.com