A Goodreads user
asked
Jason Howell:
More a comment than a question: you recently raised the subject of literary vs commercial fiction. This is something I think about a lot. Might this short post be of interest? http://rosinalippi.com/weblog/literary-illusions/
Jason Howell
More and more I've come to think of literary stuff as being out of sync with the rest of fiction in two ways:
1. Its proximity to poetry
and
2. its insistence on not being interchangeable with other forms of storytelling, that is, it's careful to do in prose what can't be done better in movies, games, whathaveyou. The whole idea that the text isn't only a delivery system for a story, but a "thing in the world" with it's own formal integrity. The way a poem might be.
I guess I could combine 1 and 2 (heh, woops).
But then you notice that, in a way, this could be said about any book that hangs together well enough, in any genre. Which might be why I don't really consider "literary" a genre, more just what we call books that have these qualities turned way up on the dial.
So yeah, this stuff interests me too.
When it comes to literary stuff being alienating to most readers... I sort of see reading as being alienating on its own. Reading selects for people who're willing to do a certain amount of work to get their art/entertainment, since the difference between a reader and a listener or viewer is that readers don't just have to pay attention or interpret what they're paying attention to, they have to *perform.* So that eliminates a lot of people right off.
First you have to be literate, then you have to bring your own worldview and sensitivities to bear on the text, so the more developed you are as a person, the richer the reading experience. (Assuming the book is decent.)
I think what we call literary just takes all this and turns it way up, asks the reader to do even more, and what it asks is probably not going to be something the reader is prepared to deal with, which means the reader is going to have to stretch. So yeah, that's not everybody's bag. Too much like real life. Most people read to escape all that.
I guess where it does become just another genre is when the writers of it celebrate sophistication or learnedness for its own sake, and then inflict all that on the reader, dismissing any reader-who-doesn't-stick as being too dim or *too short to ride this ride.* You know, all that egotistical shit.
We could just replace "genre" with "for its own sake." Literary for literary's sake. Romance for romance's sake. Erotica for... and so on. Some readers & writers enjoy that kind of thing.
So maybe Amis was succumbing to some of that in his ideas there.
But then you have the Vonneguts, the John Greens, Margaret Atwoods, RR Martins, who are shelved in certain sections of the bookstore, but, in spirit, don't box themselves in that way (I don't know who that person would be in Historical. Maybe yourself? My GF, a good reader, is a fan of all your books).
I dunno. What do you think?
And thanks for reaching out, by the way. It's rare I'm asked to comment, so I went a little ham. Price of being known for my questions more than my answers, maybe. :)
1. Its proximity to poetry
and
2. its insistence on not being interchangeable with other forms of storytelling, that is, it's careful to do in prose what can't be done better in movies, games, whathaveyou. The whole idea that the text isn't only a delivery system for a story, but a "thing in the world" with it's own formal integrity. The way a poem might be.
I guess I could combine 1 and 2 (heh, woops).
But then you notice that, in a way, this could be said about any book that hangs together well enough, in any genre. Which might be why I don't really consider "literary" a genre, more just what we call books that have these qualities turned way up on the dial.
So yeah, this stuff interests me too.
When it comes to literary stuff being alienating to most readers... I sort of see reading as being alienating on its own. Reading selects for people who're willing to do a certain amount of work to get their art/entertainment, since the difference between a reader and a listener or viewer is that readers don't just have to pay attention or interpret what they're paying attention to, they have to *perform.* So that eliminates a lot of people right off.
First you have to be literate, then you have to bring your own worldview and sensitivities to bear on the text, so the more developed you are as a person, the richer the reading experience. (Assuming the book is decent.)
I think what we call literary just takes all this and turns it way up, asks the reader to do even more, and what it asks is probably not going to be something the reader is prepared to deal with, which means the reader is going to have to stretch. So yeah, that's not everybody's bag. Too much like real life. Most people read to escape all that.
I guess where it does become just another genre is when the writers of it celebrate sophistication or learnedness for its own sake, and then inflict all that on the reader, dismissing any reader-who-doesn't-stick as being too dim or *too short to ride this ride.* You know, all that egotistical shit.
We could just replace "genre" with "for its own sake." Literary for literary's sake. Romance for romance's sake. Erotica for... and so on. Some readers & writers enjoy that kind of thing.
So maybe Amis was succumbing to some of that in his ideas there.
But then you have the Vonneguts, the John Greens, Margaret Atwoods, RR Martins, who are shelved in certain sections of the bookstore, but, in spirit, don't box themselves in that way (I don't know who that person would be in Historical. Maybe yourself? My GF, a good reader, is a fan of all your books).
I dunno. What do you think?
And thanks for reaching out, by the way. It's rare I'm asked to comment, so I went a little ham. Price of being known for my questions more than my answers, maybe. :)
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