LNH: Legion of Net.Heroes Vol.2 #23

[Tom Russell]

On Nov 9, 3:09 am, Martin Phipps <martinphip... at yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Nov 9, 3:27 pm, Tom Russell <milos_par... at yahoo.com> wrote:

> > I've never heard of a "pure" genre before.
>
> You haven't?  You've never seen movies described using hyphens?
> Romantic-comedy?  Action-suspense?  Musical-drama?  (The last one is
> usually just called "opera" :))

I have seen hyphenated genres, of course; I just don't see them as
being in anyway "impure".

>  A Western setting
> doesn't make a movie a Western.

Let's just agree to disagree here.
>
> I've heard the same argument before vis-a-vis science fiction.  If I
> take a drama and set it in the year 2020, it does not automatically
> become science fiction.  If I have Jason Voorhees killing teenagers on
> a space station, the setting alone does not make it science fiction.

But JASON X _was_ a science-fiction film.  And a slasher film.  Kind
of like ALIEN.

Okay, a _lot_ like ALIEN.


> Look at it this way: writing exists for only two reasons, either to
> impart information or to envoke an emotional reaction.

It might be more precise to say that a writer tries to engage a
reader, whether intellectually or emotionally.  In the latter case,
one is not neccessarily trying to evoke a particular and definable
emotion; the best writing doesn't make everyone feel the same way, nor
is it orchestrated to do that.  It might be a nittling point, and if
it is, I'm sorry-- I just feel it's an important enough distinction to
make.  The best art I've ever experienced does something to me, but I
can't put it into words.  It doesn't make me sad or happy or
whatever.  It's an experience and when i come out on the other end of
it, I've changed.  And I think my earlier Carney quote provides a
third reason for writing to exist.

==Tom