Comments on: Gritty

By: Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:03:56 +0000

Joe knows very well that I’m planning a novel to be called Legolas Vomiting Down Gandalf’s Robe After An Opium Binge. He’s just trying to queer my pitch.

By: Extruded Fantasy Product « Everything Is Nice

Extruded Fantasy Product « Everything Is Nice — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:07:42 +0000

[...] a comment » Mark Newton has been thinking about “gritty” fantasy. As you would expect from a shorthand that has grown organically [...]

By: Jesse Bullington

Jesse Bullington — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:55:36 +0000

Da-hoy, of course I can read your mind, Joe. Where do you think I get my grit?

Like the remix idea, btw Mark…will try to get in on that but this week is doing unspeakable things to my already sweaty workload.

By: Mark C Newton

Mark C Newton — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:39:52 +0000

Jesse – thanks for all those thoughts there. And I very much agree with your condensed history of grit and its reactionary values. (And that link – very interesting stuff.)

Joe – ‘Sure, some books are gritty and bad, just as some are romantic and bad. Is grittiness an effective disguise for badness? No more so than any other, I’d have thought.’ – absolutely the case. I think what I’m particularly interested in how debate (especially online) seems to value ‘the grit’ as ‘the good/brave/experimental thing’ in fiction, which is where things fall apart.

Realism is good if that is what we’re after, of course – but if the aesthetic isn’t designed to represent the real world at all, if something is meant to be a fairytale or hyper-real, then one can reasonably expect notions of realism to be invalid. But that’s another argument entirely!

You raise a very valid point about some complaining about the over-the-top/Tarantino-esque grit; and so perhaps the whole thing has gone full circle, and my post loses its steam somewhat…