What first comes to mind is a clearly biased history of Chile I read while in that country that stressed the 'civilizing mission' of the traditional ruling elite from the establishment of the colony to the present. Yet I could not qualify this well-written book as bad soley on the basis of its (in my view) objectionable politics.
So perhaps being poorly written is the main criterion for bad literature. In that case a recent anthology of gay erotica I read would fit the bill. Most of its writing was amateurish and clichéd. Yet it did not intend to be anything other than titulating (which it was) and in this sense served its (non-literary) function. Another example of possibly bad literature I read is a short story an old roommate gave me to criticize. It was about a father-son fishing trip in Northern Ontario which imitated Hemingway's style to such a degree that I had a hard time taking it seriously. Yet am I justified in qualifying as bad an unpublished work by a young writer still struggling to find his voice? I have a snobish Argentine friend who considers Mario Benedetti's writing as "popular" and therefore bad. Yet I quite like him and find much of what he writes serious and well-written. I thought Kerouac's On the Road was crap when I read it, yet only last night did I discuss this beat classic with a UBC creative writing student who quoted by memory I line which, I must admit, had a certain bebop rhythmic quality and a definite coolness. I am thus hard pressed to name the worst literary work I've ever read--a right-wing history, some dirty gay fiction, a friend's attempt to emulate Papa Hemingway, "popular" prose by a well-known Uraguayan, the bible of the beats--it's all good.
1 comment:
Heh, "it's all good." That's a nice thought. But at the very least, as you yourself imply, these texts are good in different ways. Perhaps you're suggesting that different standards of good (but also bad?) need to be applied to individual works or individual genres?
And surely if it's all good, then in fact nothing's good; doesn't the notion of quality depend on there also being a "bad" against which the good is judged?
Post a Comment