(Ai lynx to u, promus)

A) Many popular fiction writers have indelible styles. Raymond Chandler, for instance, writes in a beautiful style, despite the transparency of some of his plots. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is an enduring, unforgettable character, even though many of Doyle’s tales are sloppy and preposterous.

B) Many of the great works of literature have the same flaws and use the same tropes that the works of entertainment do. Iago and Edmund are technically ‘mustache-twirling villains,’ yet Shakespeare elevates them through a deep understanding of psychology and carefully-placed ambiguity. The Brothers Karamazov is technically a whodunit, although obviously much more.

C) The very definition of ‘popular’ versus ‘literature’ is frought with problems. For instance, Faulkner is ‘literature,’ but Knight’s Gambit is a collection of mystery stories. Maugham’s Ashenden is a collection of spy stories. Poe wrote horror, detective and gothic thrillers. And Graham Greene wrote many ‘emtertainments’ before his ’serious’ Catholic novels.

I’m not a genre fiction apologist, and as a lit student I appreciate that you’re arguing for more attention to be paid to the classics. It stuns me how few people, even other English majors, haven’t read Hemingway or Dostoevsky, to name only two of my favourites. But I think you should give genre fiction its due. One doesn’t necessarily cancel out the other.

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