Literary Speculation

This week we are attempting to distinguish between writing in genre and writing that may use elements of genre but that is essentially literary. Discuss this question in relation to the work(s) you read for this week. Do you think this is an important or necessary distinction, or not? Is your experience of the text affected by these questions? Remember to add a comment to another student's blog.

To be a little meta, I find the distinction between writing in genre and writing with elements of e genre perplexing. I've never been confronted with this subject. From my experience, I don't believe it's necessary to distinct but I can see why we would. But it feels like this is a distinction between literal and figurative writing styles, rather.

The Aquatic Uncle 

This was a fun read that had a loose but well-understood message in between the lines. I assumed it to be about a man that initially cannot accept where future society is (land people) vs. where he is (the sea.) He cannot see beyond his world.

"It just wasn't possible to make him accept a reality different from his own. And yet, his opinions continued to exert an authority over all of us; in the end we asked his advice about matters he didn't begin to understand, though we knew he could be dead wrong. Perhaps his authority stemmed from the fact that he was a leftover from the past."

This point is more so supported by Qfwfq falling in love with Lll, a partner who teaches him how to go beyond his boundaries, something his great-uncle cannot do. But then as Lll begins to humor the uncle and learn of his thoughts, she finds him self-assured in his own ways. I began to think perhaps this was a beneficial relationship, that Lll would enlighten the uncle. However, Qfwfq questions why Lll is always interested in his uncle, but he wants to please her. In this way, Qfwfq is less confident than his uncle, and this makes him less-desirable to Lll. Lll doesn't need him to always please her.

In the end, Lll jumps in the water with Qfwfq's uncle. The author writes some thoughts about adaptation but also staying the same. "...were prepared to change the bases of their existence so radically that the reasons why living was beautiful would be completely overwhelmed and forgotten." He says that despite the other animals adapting and evolving in front of Qfwfq, he was still him, and he wouldn't switch places with any of the other animals.

The Aquatic Uncle felt like a fable or a short story. It was a misty lesson, using a funny plot to talk about evolution and social issues. But I still wouldn't say this distinction, between speculative lit, is valuable.

All at One Point

I believe this was about gossip but that's all I got from it. I liked the simultaneous action going on with evolution and normal life, or at least that's what I got from the text. I also enjoyed it, though. It makes me want to read all of Cosmicomics by Calvino.

"because neither before nor after existed, nor any place to immigrate from, but there were those who insisted that the concept of "immigrant"could be understood in the abstract, outside of space and time."