[the_old_crowd] Re: Criticism and the Romance Genre WAS RE: A Lot of Plot

[Eileen Rebstock]

Barry:
> Blaming genre when you suspect that the author could do better is a
cop-
> out.

Yes, particularly when the literary successes of each generation are
often enough based on tweaking the accepted genre rules. In this
respect, I've just remembered that JKR herself expressed this quite well
in the interview with Emerson Spartz and Melissa Anelli. She quoted
Dorothy Sayers as saying that a romantic intrigue in a detective novel
can only properly function as a cover for something else, but that
Sayers herself had broken that very convention. 

I'd say with success, since the thing most people will recall about
Sayers' mysteries is the Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane romance. 

'Time Magazine' 's odd suggestion that JKR has completely transformed
the fantasy genre doesn't seem supportable, but I'm sure there are ways
in which she has tweaked genre herself, and that these account for some
of her popularity.

Eileen