Comments for Loconeal Publishing http://loconeal.com Developing and promoting independent authors, artists, and artisans. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:59:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ Comment on Protagonists by Foemn http://loconeal.com/2011/10/31/protagonists/#comment-376 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:59:04 +0000 http://loconeal.com/?p=1196#comment-376 hi!!!

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by opezzxkxdqw http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-375 Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:21:39 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-375 bDZ2mx agkornpyelic

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by bdobcur http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-374 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:22:37 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-374 J0cTcD prgelzzkrimd

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Geri http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-373 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:29:43 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-373 Aperpication for this information is over 9000-thank you!

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Gary Wedlund http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-356 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 02:05:16 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-356 I think you’re onto something, Terry. The means of evaluating seem to have changed.

For example, I’m currently watching a movie about horror films, and two of the films getting some play are the Shining and Carrie. The combination of popular appeal and crossing over to film, to me, basically make it hands-down that Stephan King has a classic in the box when the day is done. In fact, with Carrie I can point to a lot of dimensions across which that’s a special product worth study and longevity. And yet, those in the know suggest King is a hack, dismissed, without an ounce to time spent on the subject, nor a need to explain why.

I think that as time goes on, those in the know will have less and less influence upon the ultimate status because they will be swamped by the multitude of new avenues of appreciation. One thing we should all accept about art is how works that are evaluated have continually enjoyed new sources of validation. Long ago, the Church told us what was acceptable. Just last week, a writer was executed by a foreign tribunal because he’d messed with the system.

I want to give academia an excuse, though. They are given the mandate to teach certain concepts, and often an additional mandate to promote social concerns (fair enough). If pressed for time (15 weeks and 30 students) what do you want to bang into the heads? I know what I’d bang into the heads if I only had time to communicate one concept: Deep characterization. In that sense, they’re perfectly on target, bringing me to the most important component of my post. Instead of worrying too much about what they are doing, we genre writers need to listen to what they’re saying. My point all along is that all good literature needs style and deep characterization; these things do not belong to them. They belong to us all. And, come to think of it, that’s why Carrie is a classic.

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Terry Ervin http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-355 Tue, 27 Dec 2011 00:42:51 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-355 Some will indicate it’s the content and theme that can boost ‘genre’ works to classic staus. In any case, I think for a writer, it depends on the audience they’re targeting. Will Harry Potter be deemd a classic in the sense that A Tale of Two Cities is often touted? Probably not. But the readership of the Potter series, especially today, certainly dwarfs that and many other ‘classics’, even if they are required reading at the high school or university level.

I write my stories and novels to entertain the reader, and yes, there’s always a plot. Guess that gets me nixed for the next Nobel Prize for Literature. ;)

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Arlie Adams http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-352 Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:15:11 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-352 Having been with the English Department at OSU, I have seen and argued this with professorial types. The determination of ‘Literature’ is a matter of elitism and academic power. If you need someone to decipher the meaning of the text, it means job security to the priests of the word. It worked for lawyers, so why not literature critics? The sixties was also when progressive/liberal thought took over the colleges. The liberal/progressive professors were just coming onto the campuses durimg the fifties and attrition gave them leading positions in the sixties. The idea that art would be done for money, that commercial success could have artistic merit, was antithetical to the higher goals of the collective. Money and capitalism was dirty, man. Peace and love and seeking your inner guru was where it was at. Once in, it kind of stuck.

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Scott http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-349 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:20:51 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-349 MacBeth was about witches and prophesy. Hamlet was a ghost story. Hawthorn gets no credit for the fantastic horror he wrote (Young Goodman Brown). Poe wrote science fiction (Descent into the Maelstrom). Now that I think of it, Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and others had the ring of James Michener about them.

I think you are on to something. I really can’t thing of a classic that wouldn’t fit onto a genre shelves at the bookstore if written today.

Maybe some Dickens (though we know he wrote ghost stories too.)

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Ian Mykel http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-348 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:00:53 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-348 Perhaps if your vampire was a survivor of incest – had suppressed it for years and then went back to his old stomping grounds and faced up to how his past contributed to who he is today, then that would make it literary.

I don’t know, but that would be an awesome internal problem. Add to it his own need to victimize others in order to survive. Wow. Maybe I need to get writing.

]]> Comment on Literary, the classics, and how pragmatic is that for the rest of us? by Denise http://loconeal.com/2011/12/21/literary-the-classics-and-how-pragmatic-is-that-for-the-rest-of-us/#comment-347 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:49:15 +0000 http://loconeal.wordpress.com/?p=1289#comment-347 Frankenstein is read in many literature courses. It’s often called a classic, and it’s science fiction. The Brontes, Cervantes and Jane Austin wrote romance, Poe wrote horror and Oscar Wilde did as well. These are all ‘classic’ authors. Many classics are technically romances, but the term romance has become to mean a formulaic love story, because of the narrow framework demanded by many romance publishers. Try selling a love story without an alpha male hero. God forbid the hero or heroine should stray.

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