# Genre fiction: What writers do you think people will still be reading 100 years on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859 "2006-07-17T15:21:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/21 "2006-07-21T18:09:53Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] So it wouldn’t surprise me to see books by Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey, Cormac McCarthy, Larry McMurtry, Ed Gorman, Robert F. Jones, and Cormac McCarthy in a 22nd century bookstore. Or on the nets. Or whatever. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but Cormac McCarthy will be remembered twice as much. I figure Le Guin will continue to be read (although not just by young girl–her stuff is for everyone!). Heinlein seems likelier to me than Asimov, even though I don’t care for either of them very much. Fantasywise, of modern authors, I wouldn’t be surprised if _Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell_ is considered a classic. I suspect that _Perdido Street Station_ will remain a favorite among punk’s great-grandchildren a century hence. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/22 "2006-07-21T18:36:02Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] Yeah, but Cormac McCarthy will be remembered twice as much. [/QUOTE] I dunno. I think it’ll be like now. He’ll have cult status. The literary types will read him, and he’ll be on college reading lists, but the general public will be more familiar with McMurtry and the others. How about James Michener? Will he be remembered? He’s just about the most popular long-lived historical novelist I can think of. Other genre writers I think might survive: James Clavell Mary Stewart Thomas Costain Thomas Disch George R. R. Martin ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/23 "2006-07-21T18:41:00Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] I dunno. [/QUOTE] I think he was just joking because the list had McCarthy on it twice. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/24 "2006-07-21T18:46:13Z")
Drat, sent too soon. I think the way information is disseminated now might make these guesses hard to make. A book is an expensive thing to produce in reprints, but a computer file isn’t. How many authors have fallen aside simply because they aren’t in print and can’t find a new audience? Obviously, the publishers think that they wouldn’t make them money, but if books become electronic media those publishers are no longer taking a risk in publishing. We could end up with a much less stratified future reading list, fewer Dickens and Twains and more of the B-listers who stick around simply because their books are available to be read. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/25 "2006-07-21T18:52:11Z")
Is Ayn Rand considered a genre writer? Howzabout Hunter S. Thompson? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/26 "2006-07-21T18:55:54Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] Is Ayn Rand considered a genre writer? Howzabout Hunter S. Thompson? [/QUOTE] My wife asked about Ayn Rand yesterday, I never think of her as a Genre writer. I definitely do not think of Thompson as Genre. Jim ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/27 "2006-07-21T19:35:29Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] I think he was just joking because the list had McCarthy on it twice. [/QUOTE] :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/28 "2006-07-21T19:53:19Z")
[QUOTE=ITR champion] I have every confidence that Terry Pratchett will remain popular one hundred years in the future. His books have very broad appeal, which means that a large segment of the reading public is a potential audience for him. At the same time his fast pacing, with two or three laughs per page, fits well with today’s short attention spans, and will fit even better with tomorrow’s even shorter attention spans. [/QUOTE] You know, this reminds me of something I just recently realized about Pratchett’s writing style. His endings. His endings take FOREVER. Don’t get me wrong – he is and will probably remain my absolute favorite author of all time. His satire and humor are amazing, right up until he grabs your stomach and yanks it out. But take Night Watch, one of my favorites. The climax starts with the guardsmen in the alley, with Dai Dickens plucking the lilac and bringing the book full circle to the beginning and doesn’t end for another fifty pages, probably. Throughout which any number of things happen, but that’s where the climax starts. I’m not criticizing, I’m just saying. I also agree that he will continue to be read for decades, if for no other reason than his use of the English language, especially with internal themes and repetition, is – I wouldn’t even hesitate to say – unmatched in modern writing. He stands up to close readings the way Shakespeare does. Don’t believe me? Take the woman/city metaphor in Guards! Guards! as far as you can. You could write a serious thesis. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/29 "2006-07-21T20:04:51Z")
I have this weird premonition that Neal Stephenson will be remembered as the Dickens of our age. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859/30 "2006-07-21T20:55:47Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] My wife asked about Ayn Rand yesterday, I never think of her as a Genre writer. I definitely do not think of Thompson as Genre. Jim [/QUOTE] Attribute confusion on my part as to the meaning of “genre” fiction. I was thinking that most of their works were of a similar theme, instead of whether they shared that particular theme with a number of writers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genre-fiction-what-writers-do-you-think-people-will-still-be-reading-100-years-on/364859.md?page=1)