The October 24th issue of the internationally-respected Time magazine has an article by their literary critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, listing their version of the top one hundred English-language novels from 1923 to the present day. Well, I think most book lovers have seen plenty of ‘best ever novel’ lists in the last ten years – in the run up to and immediately after the millennium there was a serious vogue for such lists. We are used to controversy – for example in this list books translated into English don’t count (no Borges, alas) and giants of literature such as Norman Mailer didn’t make the cut – but these lists do perform one valuable service – they get people discussing books and, hopefully, fired up to read (or re-read) some of those novels, which is never a bad thing.
The Time list has some special interest for readers of SF&F though. We have seen beloved fantasy classics such as Lord of the Rings regularly topping these lists in previous years, illustrating that the genre reaches far beyond the niche ‘ghetto’ mainstream press often paint SF&F reader as being in; how fantasy novels regularly top the bestseller charts in the UK and US if they only appeal to a minority of geeks is something such critics never address, preferring this incorrect view that only a niche market of fans read this material (yes, that will be why Neil Gaiman’s excellent new novel, Anansi Boys went right to the top of the NY Times bestsellers – niche marketing…).
On the Time list are several genre entries, including Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm (don’t argue, literati, they are SF&F – our genre does boast genuine ‘literary’ classics – oh the irony of school when my English teacher would discourage me from SF but then ask me to write an essay on Animal Farm), William Gibson’s Neuromancer, Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia (on a related note Philip Pullman attacked aspects of the new Narnia movie this week over issues of intolerance).
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five (again, don’t argue lit critics, this also falls into the SF genre), Philip K Dick’s Ubik, Burgess’s Clockwork Orange and Neal Stephenson’s powerhouse Snow Crash are all in the list too, rubbing shoulders with To Kill a Mockingbird, Gravity’s Rainbow, Catcher in the Rye and Catch-22 (still one of the best American novels ever in my opinion).
It is fantastic to see so many genre entries in this kind of list – Narnia, 1984 and Lord of the Rings do turn up often in such lists, but how interesting to see Philip K Dick in there (and everyone should read at least a couple of Dick’s novels, regardless of whether they like SF or not – by the same argument I’d say everyone should read Catch-22 and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from this same list), Bill Gibson’s landmark Neuromancer (I can picture Bill’s laconic, slow-drawl response to this honour) and the outstanding Neal Stephenson who has become one of my favourite writers (when Pat Barker mixed real historical events and characters with fictional for the Ghost Road trilogy she won a Booker Prize; Neal does it with greater verve and doesn’t even get shortlisted for the Booker – although he did win the Clarke).
But there is more excitement to come, my little reading chums! Oh, yes, it gets better. You see there is another entry from our beloved genre on this list. And it is – I am shocked, amazed and delighted – a graphic novel! Yes, a comic book! The incomparable Alan Moore and the fabulous Dave Gibbon’s masterwork Watchmen is listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels.
We all knew it was a landmark in the genre – hey, it helped to create the modern graphic novel genre for adult readers – but it is incredibly satisfying to see Watchmen being so acclaimed in literary circles. Watchmen also scored another point by topping the reader’s poll section of the greatest works in the same article. Well done to all on the list (there are some wonderful works on there from all genres), with special congratulations to Alan and Dave. Oh, doesn’t this just make you want that new Absolute Edition of the Watchmen even more now?
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