Have we had enough of the realistic novel? Millhauser thinks that “the argument has already been made” insofar as anytime someone reads a book that is outside of their time and experience, the chances of them becoming impatient with the previous generation are high. Millhauser posits that the impatience a writer might have with the conventions of the previous generation often pushes writing toward the fantastic. Stern doesn’t think that fantastic fiction is so much a response to overly realistic novels, but instead that overly realistic novels are the “blip” because most major works from ancient mythology to the Bible are full of fantastic elements. In the grand tradition of storytelling then, Stern feels realistic fiction is actually a relatively new development.
