But if you read something that is clearly copied wholesale from someone else's efforts, and the self indulgence and arrogance of the writer is unavoidable, then why not say so?

Hopefully not on this site?? Making me nervous to post work now! Who is the plagiarist?!

I just mean generally, Traveller. Don't panic!

JB

I'm just trying to prolong this thread so it becomes the longest Writewords thread in the history of Writewords - is that self-indulgent?

I don't suppose anything will ever be longer than the Chick-lit Group's Cocktail Lounge!

Emma

I know, that looked so long, I didn't go anywhere near it though - chick-lit isn't really my scene. Do people still write it?

Oh yes. Business is booming as far as chick-lit is concerned. It isn't my bag, but people must like it, so I leave 'em to it.

JB

But I gather the genre has matured to the point where a new novel needs to have some kind of extra 'slant' to it to get anywhere.

Emma

True. True. And why any female novelist would wilfully and publicly allow themselves to be termed a 'chick' is beyond me.

JB

I don't think the authors did; it was the publishers who settled on the term with a sigh of relief, needing a nice rhyme for what was, commercially, the successor to the aga saga.

I notice that no one has christened the Hornby/Self equivalent what it ought in justice to be called, which is 'prick-lit'.

Emma

Isn't it lad-lit? Prick is a bit harsher than the female equivalent chick don't you think? I guess lad-lit can't exist because 'lads' don't read books.

Yes, it is lad-lit, really - I was seduced by the assonance of the two i sounds and the rhyme with chick. Can't say it appeals to me very much, but then, it's not trying to, is it?

Emma

I thought "About A Boy" was okay.

Nik.

Loved the film, and of High Fidelity, so probably I should give it a go. In fact, the inventors or a genre usually are worth a try, even if the rest leave you cold - Bridget Jones is huge fun, but the rest of the genre does nothing for me. Ditto Joanna Trollope for aga sagas.

Emma

I agree. But as much as I thought About A Boy was okay I wouldn't (and haven't) read any others he's done. Each to their own, I suppose.

Nik.

Criticism can be egotistical and self-indulgent too, if the critic is more concerned either to sound clever or to do to literary equivalent of kicking the cat after a crap day at work.

How true! Although not a literary critic (in any way you choose to define the term), AA Gill sprang directly to mind as an arrogant if not self-obsessed critic. And sadly, he is not alone in the many branches of the many branches of critical review.