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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Question of the Week: Insta-Chick Lit Novel, Clever or Cruel?

(The extremely talented) Slate legal reporter Dahlia Lithwick is writing a DIY Chick Lit novel called "Saving Face" with the help of the site's commenters. It draws on the chick-lit formula and her experience with the legal world.

When the project started, here's what Lithwick wrote:

After much thought, I decided that the best genre for me to attempt is post-Bridget Jones, oops-there's-my-underwear-on-the-outside-again chick lit—because I'm a sucker for it and also because it seems slightly more doable than vampire erotica, about which I could not hope to become an expert in a matter of weeks. (For years, the joke around my house has been that there are two stacks of books on my side of the bed: One pile is about torture, Guantanamo, and military tribunals. The other is bright pink.) I am fully aware of the raging battles between those who take pink books seriously and those who do not. This project seeks to sidestep that entire literary debate by being fun for its own sake.
The novel is kinda fun and it really captures the "pink"/mom-lit tone astoundingly well.

So what do you think, readers? A fun, interactive way to keep fiction relevant in the age of the internet? Or an affront to those of us slaving over our own fictional projects without the big name projection board that is Slate.com? I'd vote for the former, but as a fiction-writer dabbler and sometimes more, one can't help feeling a teeny bit stung by the seemingly blithe ease of it all.

1 comment:

  1. I've read a pink book. *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*

    That was a long time ago. Not long ago, I listened to a programmer talk about it, and he seemed to describe a totally different book. Maybe he read a blue version ;)

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