Thursday, August 22, 2013

In Defense of Trashy Novels


Some people get flamed by standard-grade Internet marauders, like Republicans. It is my lot in life, however, to get flamed by incensed Georgette Heyer fans. Yesterday, I posted a list of 40 “trashy” books that included, among the likes of D.H. Lawrence and Shirley Conran, an example from Heyer, and promptly the comments were filled with protest. The complaints vary. 

Some people feel I was too quick to classify their favorite book — the Outlander series, or else Heyer’s Black Moth itself — as “trash,” which they understand as an insult. Others are upset that I would dare put Nin and Lawrence on a list of trash, I guess because Nin and Lawrence are branded as “literary” and “serious” even when they are writing what at least Nin openly admitted was work-for-hire that she considered inferior to her Diaries. (More on Lawrence in a bit.) … Read More

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