Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
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My point is not that you need to enjoy those kinds of work. You need only to acknowledge that they exist, and that their existence shows how the organizing principles you're accustomed to saying are intrinsic to a particular mode of art are not necessarily so.
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My favorite balance of those traits is for a writer to (simultaneously) advance the plot while offering key insights into the character and moment in culture -- all at the same time, and all in a gorgeous and graceful style with rhythmic momentum. That for me (personally) is the ideal.
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Most of us prefer the sort of novel that emphasizes story and there is nothing wrong with saying so. What is wrong is insisting that other kinds of novel do not and should not exist.
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You don't have to agree with anyone else's preferences in fiction. All you have to do is recognize that there are other approaches to the form, and other points of view regarding the merits of those approaches.
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