Tuesday, 14 April 2009
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Literary Vs. Commercial Fiction
I just came across a good Newsweek article about the commercial/literary divide in literature. And this is a question I hear more and more - Is reading a good end, in and of itself, or is reading so-called fluff or escapist literature little better than just watching tv? Or is reading just for fun good because it is a potential "gateway drug" to more premium, difficult literature? Or is it just another brain-sapping activity?
In the article, Zadie Smith is quoted as saying, "readers fail when they allow themselves to believe that fiction is the thing you relate to and writers the amenable people you seek out when you want to have your own version of the world confirmed and reinforced."
I think this is a valid point, especially about the nature of comfortable reading that only reinforces ones already-entrenched worldviews and values. At the same time, so much high-brow literary fiction is just so damn boring. Neither the story-lines, nor the language-usage is interesting or beautiful. For example, I read Zadie Smith's White Teeth. And I didn't like it all - I thought there were several bizarre story-lines that were held together by the contrived image of "teeth" in a novel that did shed light on a culture I was not familiar with, but felt overall pointless.
What drives me crazy is that there appears to be so little dialogue about creating a middle ground. Because each side is indignant and defensive against the other, calling each other alternately sell-outs or snobs, the accessible well-written fiction is hard to find. Why do we have to be afraid of literature that is enjoyable? Why is it either "genre" fiction or "literary" fiction (I mean, literary fiction is pretty defined by what it is NOT, i.e., NOT genre fiction)? Why don't MFA programs allow genre writers in? How do we expect to get better written genre writing, or more interesting and accessible literary fiction, or better yet, blurring the line so completely that its not entirely identifiable as one or the other?
Here's the link to the article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/193475
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Comments (9)
ooh. i liked this read--those are some interesting thoughts to ponder.
Hm. Good points all around. I think, too, that you can like both fluff and serious literature. Sort of in the same way you can like both twinkies and salad. It's just that neither the twinkies nor the salad wants to admit that.
Good points. Is genre fiction necessariy fluff? Is literary fiction necessarily serious? Distinctions about genre are of little value except as a crutch used by academicians who earn their living by enforcing such distinctions and by booksellers who want to know where to shelve a book in order to maximize sales. Is The Yiddish Policeman's Union literary fiction or genre fiction? How about Special Topics in Calamity Physics? Or The Ladies #1 Detective Agency?
Very interesting thoughts. I love mindless fiction for entertainment and escape, but I like it even more when I find a true literary treat that entertains. Maybe you can be the trailblazer to bridge this gap!
:) jodi picoult is one of my favorites..
Seems like the way a work is defined into one category is whether it's marketable or not, in which case there will always be the two.
So someone needs to read a book to make sure that his or hers version of the world is the right one?
This is just something i never heard of in my life. i read to learn something new, to look at the world from different perspective, to find some answers to my basic life questions. And often if the book's really good i do kinda fall out of the real life reading it. But i wouldn't call it a "gateaway drug".Also here the division is more like classic literature and "the rest". So you kinda have to consider yourself which of the rest is more like real literary valuable thing and which is more like just a brain-ruining mind-poisoning commercial rubbish.@Pauline_Peacock - Hey beautiful!!! Yeah, I agree, almost everything you read makes you think about something, ask or answer questions about life. How are you???
@heatheranastasiu - What i read now makes me think about Law and taxes. Thesis work will cost me intense boredom. Hopefully it's still better than some intertaining nonsense commercial thing.