Drachenwurst

Many years ago, I attended a talk by Ursula K. Le Guin, whose work I respect, most of all because Earthsea bucked the trends of what was then traditional fantasy. And in the talk, she refers to the depths (well, I guess, shallows) of current traditional fantasy, in particular that of shared-world, serialized genre fiction. She called it "The Bologna Factory", where each new story is just another slice.

Now, this is MY job description she's talking about, but I take the hit manfully, honestly, and with respect. I am proud of what I have written over the years, but I understand that I am in the depths of genre. One of the reason I LIKE her fantasy is that it rejected genre trends, though I recognize that I myself am part of the genre she has identified and lambasted. And I'm cool with it.

What reminded me of that long-ago statement was THIS article in the Stranger blog, which talks about artwork that is sausage, with a the dead tree text of a book used instead of meat, and the cover transformed into the label. It is, by its own name, Literaturwurst.

Now, I would love to hang a sausage made of the Bruderkrieg hanging in my office, for oh, so many reasons.

More later,