I think part of the problem with the literary fiction is the implicit snobbery. They're the books that are filed under "Fiction" in most bookstores, without a qualifier. (Of course, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Candace Bushnell go there too.) They get the most prestige. They get the snootiest reviewers. That's what gets people's backs up--they claim, or at least imply, that their books are better than anyone else's.
I guess this is something I don't buy into. I like reading some of the literary reviews; I like the essay quality of them. It doesn't make me feel stupid, and it doesn't make me feel that somehow I'm being condescended to because, in the end, it's not relevant to my writing. I know that I'm excluded from that by the nature of what I write, and I'm unwilling to change the nature of what I write to join that club--if I even could change the nature of what I write so artificially. (Sorry; I know it's not all about my books, but..)
And we buy into it, too. If I read a romance novel and don't like it, I say that it was bad. If I read a literary novel and don't like it, I say that I just didn't get it. I feel like there was a layer there that I didn't get because I'm too stupid or I'm unwilling to put in the extra time to appreciate it. Which makes me defensive and resentful, because I don't like feeling stupid.
If you don't like the book, and/or you don't want to put the work into it -- there's nothing to feel stupid about. We all read for different reasons, at different times. Sometimes I want to chew at things; I want the layers and the difficulty and the language. Sometimes I don't. I don't feel inherently smarter or stupider at either of those times.
I guess maybe you're right, and that is part of the problem - it's just that I don't get the problem. Assuming none of us are reading for classes anymore, and therefore choose what we want to read, we're reading solely to entertain ourselves in any given frame of mind. If you read entirely to relax after a long, mentally challenging day, or if you read for escape because you're a child psychologist and you simply don't want fictional darkness and edge when you see so much of it in real life, there are books that will speak to you, and fill those needs.
If you have a mindless dayjob and you want the work and intellectual stimulation of the struggle for comprehension and epiphany, there are also books that you will like.
What other people make of those books has nothing to do with the way you relate to them as a reader; books aren't clothing, and I hate to seem them reduced to fashion statements.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 04:02 am (UTC)I guess this is something I don't buy into. I like reading some of the literary reviews; I like the essay quality of them. It doesn't make me feel stupid, and it doesn't make me feel that somehow I'm being condescended to because, in the end, it's not relevant to my writing. I know that I'm excluded from that by the nature of what I write, and I'm unwilling to change the nature of what I write to join that club--if I even could change the nature of what I write so artificially. (Sorry; I know it's not all about my books, but..)
And we buy into it, too. If I read a romance novel and don't like it, I say that it was bad. If I read a literary novel and don't like it, I say that I just didn't get it. I feel like there was a layer there that I didn't get because I'm too stupid or I'm unwilling to put in the extra time to appreciate it. Which makes me defensive and resentful, because I don't like feeling stupid.
If you don't like the book, and/or you don't want to put the work into it -- there's nothing to feel stupid about. We all read for different reasons, at different times. Sometimes I want to chew at things; I want the layers and the difficulty and the language. Sometimes I don't. I don't feel inherently smarter or stupider at either of those times.
I guess maybe you're right, and that is part of the problem - it's just that I don't get the problem. Assuming none of us are reading for classes anymore, and therefore choose what we want to read, we're reading solely to entertain ourselves in any given frame of mind. If you read entirely to relax after a long, mentally challenging day, or if you read for escape because you're a child psychologist and you simply don't want fictional darkness and edge when you see so much of it in real life, there are books that will speak to you, and fill those needs.
If you have a mindless dayjob and you want the work and intellectual stimulation of the struggle for comprehension and epiphany, there are also books that you will like.
What other people make of those books has nothing to do with the way you relate to them as a reader; books aren't clothing, and I hate to seem them reduced to fashion statements.