REVIEW: THE POWER, BY NAOMI ALDERMAN

Posted on May 6, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged #readwomen, arts, binary, book, books, cis, cisgender, cissexism, commercial, critique, erasure, fiction, gender roles, gender violence, gender-identity, identity, inequality, lens, Naomi Alderman, narrative, novelisation, nuance, parody, reversal, review, scifi, speculative fiction, The Power, writing.

by Eli Lambe

The Power is a profoundly affecting read. In it, Naomi Alderman envisions a switching of roles and of power dynamics, deftly parodying and reflecting back the ways in which we justify, enforce and understand gender roles.

It asks the question: “What if women were stronger than men; What if men had to be afraid of women?” and follows its core characters – Roxy, the daughter of a British crime boss; Tunde, a Nigerian journalist; Allie, an American foster kid who escapes an abusive household; and Margot, an American Mayor trying to balance her city in the wake of this sudden shift, and protect her daughters Jocelyn and Maddie – as the world progresses towards “Cataclysm.” Continue Reading

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

Posted on November 17, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, Angela Carter, art, Arthur Krystal, books, China Miéville, commercial, Connie Willis, criticism, Docx, Don Winslow, fantasy, form, genre, Girl with all the gifts, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kurt Vonnegut, literary fiction, literature, Lord Dunsany, low brow, Melanie, Mervyn Peake, metaphor, mike carey, money, mr carey, myth, novel, Oliver Burkeman, pandora, politics, Pulp, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, reading, school, sci-fi, smart, study, Ted Chiang, Ursula LeGuin, writer, writing, zombie.

by Mike Carey

Continued from part one, published on The Norwich Radical two weeks ago.

I hate to rake up ancient history, but here’s another example from a little further back – dredged up because in this case it is a writer of literary novels (Edward Docx, in the Observer in 2010) who’s saying this, so the agenda is maybe a little more naked.

Even good genre… is by definition a constrained form of writing. There are conventions and these limit the material. That’s the way writing works and lots of people who don’t write novels don’t seem to get this: if you need a detective, if you need your hero to shoot the badass CIA chief, if you need faux-feminist shopping jokes, then great; but the correlative of these decisions is a curtailment in other areas. If you are following conventions, then a significant percentage of the thinking and imagining has been taken out of the exercise. Lots of decisions are already made.

Considering that Docx rails against “a fundamental dishonesty” in the way this subject is usually discussed, I’m going to pick my words with care.

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 1)

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged academia, art, Arthur Krystal, books, commercial, criticism, fantasy, form, genre, guest, high brow, horror, Jonathan Jones, Kidd and Castano, literary fiction, literature, low brow, Mark Liberman, mike carey, money, mr carey, novel, Oliver Burkeman, politics, Pulp, reading, sci-fi, smart, study, Terry Pratchett, writer, writing.

by Mike Carey

The argument about the relative merits of literary and genre fictions just keeps running and running. There’ll be periods of decorous silence, and then it will break out again, usually in the form of some egregious statement in a broadsheet or magazine, and it will be like it never left.

One thing you tend to notice after a while, though: it’s almost never writers of genre fiction who are picking the fight. To be fair, it’s often not “literary” writers either – it’s academics taking up the cudgels on their behalf; considerately telling us which stories are worth serious consideration and which aren’t. And I guess we appreciate the help, right? Because it’s a bewildering fictional landscape out there and an innocent young seeker after truth could easily go astray.Continue Reading

RAISE THE PITCHFORK: MUSIC AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged blog, blogosphere, commercial, Conde Nast, Ed Sheeran, establishment, GQ, journalism, Major Lazer, media, MSM, music, music artists, music journalism, music media, Nasties, niche, Pitchfork, public, Stormzy, Taylor Swift, The New Yorker, The Weeknd, underground, Vanity Fair, vogue.

by Mike Vinti

It was announced on Wednesday that influential music blog Pitchfork – virtual second home to many music nerds – has been sold to Condé Nast, the publishing group behind Vanity Fair and Vogue.

On the face of it, this is a pretty boring piece of news to anyone other than music journalists; Condé Nast is no longer the giant of media it once was, and Pitchfork has a relatively niche audience. As such, this announcement has been met with derision by many in the blogosphere, perhaps wary of the old-world Nasties infringing on their ad revenue, alongside some legitimate concerns for the diversity of its audience and contributor pool. Yet aside from the dull business of one company purchasing another, the deal proves far more interesting than it first appears.Continue Reading

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REVIEW: THE POWER, BY NAOMI ALDERMAN

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 2)

LITERATURE VS GENRE – SECONDS OUT (PART 1)

RAISE THE PITCHFORK: MUSIC AND MAINSTREAM MEDIA

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