[taosaur]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

And besides its ex-clusive nature, literary fiction just doesn't really bring anything helpful to the table when looking for something interesting to read.. Wherein lies my primary beef.

But, but, but this:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Now if I tell you I'm looking for something scifi-ish—not space ships and ray guns scifi, but rather something speculative yet more esoteric and introspective—don't you think you might have a better idea of what I'm looking for? And I if have to say; "Speculative, but Literary please."

demonstrates just the opposite! If you say to a librarian or clerk, "I'm looking for something scifi-ish—not space ships and ray guns scifi, but rather something speculative yet more esoteric and introspective," the dreaded L-word is going to be the second or third one out of their mouth.

"More literary?"

And then you will pop them in the nose.

You could save everyone some pain and suffering and yourself some legal bills by acknowledging the existence of the adjective that shall not be named.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Use terms that describe what kind of book it is not what kind of book it isn't (it isn't scifi, fantasy, western, romance, or mystery). Does that make any sense?

"Literary" does describe what kind of book it is, at about the same level of precision as "popular" or "genre." There are more exact subdivisions of literary fiction, but you'd need a stronger background in literary criticism than mine to really get into them. There are the "eras"--Romantic, Victorian, Modern, Post-Modern, Contemporary (it will be interesting to see if that one becomes antiquated the way "Modern" did)--and a few almost-genre-like classifications like Magical Realism and Minimalism, and of course any discussion of literature will come down to comparing specific authors. Still, particularly when discussing genre books with literary qualities or vice versa, "literary" is a very useful term.

If it also has baggage to be unloaded, well let's air that dirty laundry and sit in the catbird seat.

I'll stop now.