Mentioning him in the same sentence with Barbara Cartland is blasphemous, Kallistos *s*; but your point is well taken. Genghis Khan required all his soldiers to carry the small baton that designated a chief, as a reminder that the achievement of excellence was possible to anyone who put forth the effort to gain it. 'Perfection' is dead, and so beyond our reach; but 'excellence' is alive, and can be attained.

Even hack writing has its stars, however. Personally, I find Cartland appallingly bad, and have never understood the appeal of her writing to anyone. Georgette Heyer, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, on the other hand, produced so-called hack work that is most excellent. I found Bradley's longer, more pretentious novels like 'Firebrand' and 'The Mists of Avalon' adequate, but 'The Heirs of Hastur' (which is part of her science fiction world of Darkover) comes perilously close to being real literature. And Heyer, of course, invented the modern historical romance. I don't know anyone who has equalled her quality in that genre.