In a recent Guardian rant by Edward Docx (a writer with the odd misfortune of sharing his name with a word processor file extension) the peculiar fantasy that there is a fundamental “difference between literary and genre fiction” is once again stitched together Frankenstein-like from bits of half-dead prejudice, tiresome artifice, and simple humanistic hubris.
It is time to double-tap this stubborn literary zombie and put an end to its virulent intellectual jaundice once and for all.
ZAD. Crooked like the letter Z. He is a mere zad, or perhaps zed; a description of a very crooked or deformed person.
– 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
The Cult of Universal Authorhood now has a youth recruitment program.
Created by former New Yorker managing editor Jacob Lewis and current New Yorker staff writer Dana Goodyear, it’s called Figment.com, conceived as a sort of Facebook for young adult fiction, where teens can “write whatever they wanted in whatever form they wanted.”
froward _ Perverse, hard to deal with, ungovernable. Also, in a wider sense, bad or naughty.
– A Sea of Words : A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O’Brian’s Seafaring Tales
HEIFER BRAND _ A handkerchief on a man’s arm at a dance, signifying that he’s prepared to take the role of a woman and accept male dancing partners.
– Dictionary of the American West by Winfred Blevins.
procraftinate /pro-kræf-ti-neit/ v. – to put off writing and sending query letters to literary agents so one can continue researching, writing, and rewriting fiction.
