Episode 519: Shortlisted By Angelic Dynamo!

Contrary to what most critics had led me to believe, I actually enjoyed Michael Tolliver Lives, Armistead Maupin's return to the characters he first created in Tales Of The City after two (ill-advised in my opinion) forays into writing other stuff. I'm sure their criticisms will stand up should I cast a literary eye on the novel, but I can't help wondering if they've missed the point of the novel, or indeed, a series like Tales Of The City. You don't go to it looking for great literature; you go to it to escape and be entertained. I'm not saying great literature can't do that for you as well. What I am saying is that Maupin is doing it without claiming to be writing what most critics apparently want to see, i.e. 'literary' stuff. There is no shame in writing commercial stuff. After all, we can't all be starving artists 100% of the time. It's like how my dream is to be both a respected poet and a commercially successful science fiction novelist. In the absence of the latter, a job in the civil service would do fine too. (Come on, I'm Singaporean, i.e. pragmatic.) I've made a small step towards the former too, which you can find here. Please read and vote if you like it!