With the start of a Literary Fiction monthly book club, discussions on the Harvard Classics, and personal challenges to read on "classic" book each month, I found
this article over on SF Signal to be timely and thought provoking.
His concluding paragraph:
Quote:
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My contention is that "literary fiction" is not problematic because people do not understand it, but that we cannot understand it. It is an idea that is not designed to be understood. It is a term that tells us very little, and can be used to hide a lot. It is absurdly insistent on some idea of purity, of gravitas and transcendent refinement, to the exclusion of many other works that have as much, if not more value, to their readers. Its invocation removes the works it labels into a self-contained realm of appreciation where all other works fail to achieve what the authenticated "literary works" do simply because they are assumed to not be in the same category. It is hard to feel energized when we wrap so many conversations around such an idea.
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I'm curious about other's thoughts on this subject.