[8.8.05][Andrew Stevens] BRITLIT REBORN? Steve of This Space devotes some commentary to Jason Cowley's Observer piece on contemporary British fiction. In the article, Cowley opines:
"The devastating events of 11 September 2001 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the second wave of mass asylum-driven immigration into Britain and the emergence of our new wired-up, interconnected world, have changed everything in this country."
In an interview soon to be published on 3:AM, Incendiary author Chris Cleave remarks that:
"I think it's wishful thinking to tidy away the books which reference terror into some 'post-9/11' genre. It implies that terror is a blip, a temporary phenomenon that will soon fade away and, with it, the literature which addressed it. Unfortunately I think 9/11 signalled an enduring change in our world, or at least in how we perceive our world. If you write about the present day but you don't acknowledge that sea-change in your novel -- either directly or implicitly -- then you haven't written a contemporary novel, you've written a fantasy. I don't think we should call books like mine or Ian McEwan's 'post-9/11' novels or 'terror fiction', I think we should just call them contemporary novels. It is right that novelists should be engaged with the times they live in -- that's the job, as far as I can see." [permalink]
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