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Interestingly, this Maugham secenario in a way was prophetic of The Name of the Rose- although there Eco, an established Literatus, was shoving two fingers at those of his colleagues who claimed detective stories were inherently lightweight and unintellectual.
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Yes, I seem to recall an awful lot of people insisted they only read
The Name of the Rose for the philosophy...
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But this hostility to 'fantasy' erupted when the LR was first published, long before the clones appeared.
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True, but I believe "magical realism" is a fairly recent term, and by the time it appeared there was quite a
good reason why a lot of people were suspicious of anything labelled "fantasy".
Anyway, the "magical realism" label was one of the great triumphs of marketing:
"Fantasy? How can people read that junk? Now let me get back to this wonderful novel about psychic powers and supernatural beings."