The New York Times (Magazine, in this case) produces a sweet, celebratory, nicely written piece about a genre writer that takes the writer’s work seriously. Not a single mention of “transcending genre,” just a brief portrait of Jack Vance and the writers who admire him. I was really happy to see this.
So close, but check out the caption under the book photo: “With an emphasis on language instead of plot and spectacle, Vance’s stories seem to defy the hallmarks of science fiction and fantasy to fall into a genre of their own: the Jack Vance story.”
Argh! Good catch — now I’m remembering that there’s a similar line in the article itself. Ah well. At least that’s a slightly different formulation of the transcending genre trope?
Yeah, I’d say that “so good that it’s sui generis” is a slight improvement on “so good that it’s literary.”