Vaughn Tan introduces the idea of “quality trash”, “the best kind of beach reading”:
Quality Trash
Trash is well-known to all, but what is Quality Trash? I say: books with beautifully crafted prose, on topics that are Not Overtly Serious.
If the book is explicitly about, idk, moral ethics or climate collapse or the atrocities of [name your armed conflict], it is automatically eliminated from consideration. The same if the writing is clunky and verbose.
Quality Trash frequently uses trope and stereotype — but only to build in unexpected ways on top of what appears to be thoroughly preworked ground. This apparently paradoxical combination of familiarity with novelty is one of its great attractions. Quality Trash may seem boringly conventional but isn’t.
It is also never purely frivolous or actually trashy. Serious Issues and Detailed Domain Knowledge sneak into Quality Trash under the guise of superficially absurd or airheaded plotlines devoted to art heists or sailing holidays in the Greek islands or sourdough bread. Quality Trash does not demand that you take it seriously to be read with enjoyment, but part of its Quality is that it can also be differently enjoyed when taken seriously. (And because I know you will ask: merely workmanlike but charmless prose is an automatic disqualifier.)
Trash is well-known because it is commonplace, but Quality Trash is vanishingly rare. For me, it is the best kind of beach reading.
Vaughn Tan introduces the idea of “quality trash”, “the best kind of beach reading”:
His favorite examples: The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox (Barry Hughart), The Hilary Tamar books (Sarah Caudwell), and the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin books (Rex Stout). Cedric Chin adds the Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman.
Are there any quality trash ratfics?
aren’t they all?