"To live outside the law you must be honest."

Lest anyone wonder why I am spending so much bandwidth on what appears to be an off-topic subject like "genre fiction", it's really quite simple. It interests me.

But more importantly it directly relates to the way our cities are formed.

I had sensed but hadn't been able to articulate the connection until M. Blowhard pointed it out --- the issue is working within a set of forms and rules --- in the post just prior to this one. I'd recommend you read that post if you haven't. The key lines are in the paragraph which starts

"I'd be a little rougher on TT than you are."

Btw, a big related and interesting issue which is part of the "genre fiction" discussion is the formation of popular and elite "taste" and how that happens.

These related issues are on a lot of minds, such as Henry Farrell, Michael Jennings and even some with regrettable political positions such as ARMAVIRUMQUE which addresses the issue so consistently and often so intelligently that no specific link need be offered.

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Just remember what Bob Dylan said: "To live outside the law you must be honest."