Here we go.
A Discovery of Witches is the story of Diana Bishop: historian, tenured Oxford professor, and witch. You see, humans are not alone. They unknowingly share the world with three species of creatures: the daemons, creative souls as prone to genius as they are to madness; the vampires, superhuman beings who sustain their extended lifespans by consuming blood (and who do not sparkle in the sunlight); and the witches, blessed by their pagan goddess with supernatural magics.
Diana, a witch who has thrown away her heritage, comes across a mysterious, enchanted alchemical text during her studies. While she thinks nothing of it, preferring to block out any trace of magic from her life, she finds that her discovery has drawn the attention of representatives from each of the three races, not least among them the dazzling handsome vampire Matthew Clairmont. Matthew reveals to Diana that this alchemical text may hold the key to understanding the history and destiny of the three races, and that there are factions of witches and vampires who will do anything to possess it. The two soon form an alliance to discover what is hidden within the text, and how it connects to Diana's discarded heritage; however, this alliance soon develops into a romance that threatens to upset the delicate peace between the three races that has kept them hidden from humans for so long.
In my last post, I talked about how Literature should have an elevated writing style, or at least should not read like a middle-school writing assignment or bad fanfiction. I may be biased after the last post, but this novel is practically a godsend after Fifty Shades of Grey. Believable, interesting character interaction! Wonderful imagery! The writing style of someone who actually cares! Sweet literary prose, my oasis in the desert of bad fiction!
Of course, not all is sunshine and rainbows in the writing style department; this is Harkness' first novel, and it does show. In addition general writing mistakes, as well as a disappointing tendency to tell instead of show, Harkness tends to spend pages and pages detailing not only the main characters' budding romance, but mundane details of Diana's everyday life; I'm not kidding, the first half of the book reads almost exactly like Fifty Shades of Grey or that other vampire romance book series. And while the level of attention and detail Harkness gives to obscure historical historical details, or to the many wines the main characters drink, would be fascinating in in one of her history books or her wine blog, in what purports to be a fantasy story these details cause the book to drag on... and drag on...
...and drag on...
*zzzzz-* Huzzadragons!
Of course, this brings me to my next point: the story. Again, "Literature" is supposed to focus on deep characterization and development of overarching themes rather than plot. Despite my above complaints about the story's tendency to drag, there is a rather large amount of plot. However, the plot does serve to examine and develop the characterization; the story of Diana and Matthew is a story of history and of destiny; it is a story of accepting who you are and of accepting others for who they are.
This is where the matter of Genre Fiction comes in. You see, in order to keep "Literature" pure and distinguished, scholars have elevated so called Literary Fiction above what they term Genre Fiction: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Mystery, etc. It is argued that books placed in the realm of Genre Fiction cannot be "Literature", that vampires and witches somehow detract from a book's literary merit.
As a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy, I disagree wholeheartedly with this practice. While there are many "fluff" pieces of fiction, books written solely for entertainment with no regard for literary value, in the realms of genre fiction, there are many books that explore human and universal themes as well. However, because the book contains a few spaceships or wizards or talking animals, it supposedly loses all literary merit. What about the many pieces of "Literature" (Midsummer Nights Dream, Faust, and Paradise Lost spring readily to mind) that contain supernatural or fantastic elements? What (besides age), elevates these pieces of fiction above others?
The plot of a book is oftentimes what causes a reader to care about the characters; the way the characters grow and develop in reaction to the plot allows the audience to connect with the characters, to learn and grow with them. In my opinion, there can be no characterization or theme without some kind of plot; this connection with the the characters is what gives a work literary merit, and the addition of genre elements does not detract from this in any way.
Of course, this is all my opinion; what do you think? What is the difference between Genre Fiction and "Literature"? Does the line between the two need to be redrawn, or perhaps erased entirely? Or do we need this distinction to preserve the "merit" of "Literature"?
Next time, I read James Patterson's Zoo; judging by the Amazon reviews, it looks like this is going to be another fun one.
There's an interesting discussion of literary and genre fiction on About.com. I think the error genre fiction falls into is ending up as a 'form' story - fill in the blanks and you're done. But then, some stories need to be told multiple times; after all, we like them so much because they're always applicable. Like CS Lewis said, “if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it” – CS Lewis.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response, Lauren. I do agree that genre fiction often falls into the same patterns of storytelling, but aren't all stories made up of the same basic conflicts (Man vs. Man, Nature, or Himself)? How is "Literature" any different from genre fiction in this regard?
DeleteI like how you discuss this so well. It helps me to understand what i should be working towards since i want to be a fiction writer. There are others out there who do not know that when writing a novel of any kind you have to attract your audience and not have it drag on forever and not to baby their characters. to have a good novel on anything you have to put it all out there the right way.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback, Cindy. I think it's really a question of balance: while you don't want to bog the story down with unnecessary lingering on the characters, you also don't want to sacrifice characterization to get the plot going. By giving the characters their due time in the spotlight, but not "babying" (great choice of words for this kind of writing, btw) them, you can give the audience a reason to care about the characters without taking away from the plot.
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