The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[John F]

Librarians, do a little cleanup before adding ebooks to your catalog.

I don't think listing these as "Literature" is helpful for the majority of patrons browsing new additions:

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Librarians, do a little cleanup before adding ebooks to your catalog.

I don't think listing these as "Literature" is helpful for the majority of patrons browsing new additions:

I'd list them as rubbish.

[John F]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'd list them as rubbish.

Sure. Just like science fiction and fantasy.

To each their own.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

Sure. Just like science fiction and fantasy.

To each their own.

I'm not saying all romance is rubbish/ But those three are trashy romance and I think trashy romance is rubbish.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by John F

Librarians, do a little cleanup before adding ebooks to your catalog.

I don't think listing these as "Literature" is helpful for the majority of patrons browsing new additions:

What does literature mean as a category anyways? Seems insanely subjective. Some of the "literature" I read in school could have easily justified a similar cover.

[Quoth]

Literature is material reviewed by Literary Critics (self appointed or media endorsed) and also nominated for some generic book awards/prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It's not really a genre at all, unlike Detective, Romance, Western, SF, Fantasy, Horror, Erotic, Ghosts, Historical Fiction etc.

[dewd]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

The reason it is so confusing is because it goes against the normal use of the apostrophe. In all other words the apostrophe is used to indicate a possessive but not with "it's."

This is one of those rules of English which cause confusion when people were only ever taught part of it, but which are quite straightforward when you understand the whole thing.

An apostrophe is used to indicate a possessive with nouns (including proper nouns), but _not for pronouns_. "It" is a pronoun, just like "him" or "her" or "me". So "him" -> "his", "her" -> "hers", "it" -> its.

(Another example of this half-a-rule is "i before e", the exceptions to which almost all vanish when you remember the second half of the rule: "...but only when it rhymes with bee".)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Literature is material reviewed by Literary Critics (self appointed or media endorsed) and also nominated for some generic book awards/prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It's not really a genre at all, unlike Detective, Romance, Western, SF, Fantasy, Horror, Erotic, Ghosts, Historical Fiction etc.

Literature should be dropped as a genre as it's meaningless.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Literature should be dropped as a genre as it's meaningless.

If it helps people find the things they want - or avoid the things they don't want - then it's doing its job.

[Solitaire1]

dwed wrote the following as part of a post:

Originally Posted by dewd

(Another example of this half-a-rule is "i before e", the exceptions to which almost all vanish when you remember the second half of the rule: "...but only when it rhymes with bee".)

I'd never heard the last part of the rule, just "i before e except after c." I thought the reason for the inconsistency was due to English absorbing words from other languages without changing the spelling (which is why "c" can sound like "ch" in some words). An example of this is the word "colonel" which is pronounced the French way but is spelled the Spanish way.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Literature is material reviewed by Literary Critics (self appointed or media endorsed) and also nominated for some generic book awards/prizes and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

It's not really a genre at all, unlike Detective, Romance, Western, SF, Fantasy, Horror, Erotic, Ghosts, Historical Fiction etc.

I think of "literature" as an umbrella term for all types of written books, while the genre narrows it down. It is similar to manga where there many different genres like with literature, but also includes genres like Isekai (where an individual is transported to another world, which could mean another time, on to a different planet, into a video game, or into another manga).

It's similar to Music (which refers to all music), which has genres for specific types of music. It is similar to classical music which can be divided in several ways, such as by era (which includes Romantic, Classical, and Baroque), by the type of Classical Music (which includes Sonata, Orchestra and Concerto), or the way I divide it in my own music library (Solo Instrument, Small Grouping, Large Grouping, and Vocal).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

If it helps people find the things they want - or avoid the things they don't want - then it's doing its job.

How is literature doing it's job when we have stuffy boring books all the way to trashy romance all called literature?

So if you told me you like literature and I got you The Billionaire's Holiday Classified you'd be happy to read it?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How is literature doing it's job when we have stuffy boring books all the way to trashy romance all called literature?

The apostrophe! My eyes! I feel like Cassandra.

I can't help thinking that your notion of "stuffy boring books" might be fairly congruent with my notion of literature.

So, that said, I agree that the term literature has become such a catchall term that it serves no useful purpose. So what I propose is a category called "highfalutin lit" or possibly "pretentious lit". People would know what was implied and it would serve as a handy screen, either positive or negative.

[DNSB]

Literature: books you are told you must read for their superior artistic merit despite most examples being little more than great cures for insomnia.

[DiapDealer]

Literature: books that no one consulted with you (rhetorical you) about classifying.

Seriously though, why so much lit hate? Half the world can't agree with the other half on what constitutes a "good" book. So why should a handful of labels be saddled with perfectly nailing down anything concrete for any one?

Why would I care that I couldn't enjoy one book labelled "literature," but loved another labelled the same? A book has never been its label. Use labels where they work for you; don't use them where they don't. And don't use them (without absolutely good reasons) in situations where you know someone's going to get bent about it for reasons that are silly. It's usually not worth the grief.