3 ms·

The negativity here about Literary fiction is interesting. A lot of people implying that readers don't enjoy it or that it's elitist or a status symbol etc...

The negativity here about Literary fiction is interesting. A lot of people implying that readers don't enjoy it or that it's elitist or a status symbol etc... I think it's important to accept that there is a group of people - perhaps small - that love reading literary fiction. It's not reasonable to assume bad faith, just because you can't see the merit in something. There maybe people that use it as a means of identifying with a group and not out of genuine passion or interest - but that is true of every group. You always have people who attach themselves in this way: programming and tech world are a classic case. Anyway just because something seems esoteric does not mean the person iis not enjoying it. We all have radically different needs, experiences and interests. And it's OK. Anyone who thinks that because they read literary fiction they are superior in some way is foolish certainly. On the other hand they may quite reasonably say that they consider one form of fiction to be aesthetically superior: that is the nature of aesthetics - we all get our say.

YouAreGreat 9y ago
> there is a group of people - perhaps small Right, but this post is not about the vanishing of Literary fiction from the face of the earth. A merely shrinking market is obviously consistent with the idea that some (or much) of it formerly sold to people who weren't really enjoying spending hours with a genre almost defined by not having much in the way of story or ideas, which in turn is consistent with the hypothesis that part of the market was sustained by status signaling.
- scandox 9y ago
  I think again to say "defined by not having much in the way of stories or ideas" is a level of dismissal that suggests something stronger than mere indifference. A lot of people have bad early experiences with literary fiction and I'd agree that when it's bad, it's the worst. But when it's good it can be exceptional. It also does not preclude strong stories, or idea driven stories. Of course a great deal of it is about capturing subjective human experience in a way that - when it fails for a reader - leaves them with nothing. But when it works it can be incredible. Generally what I find is that once peoplelike a work of literary fiction they no longer think of it as "literary" - they sort see it in a category of its own.
  - watwut 9y ago
    Most of people who dismiss that category of books this way do it out of prejudice and never read them. It is no different then rejecting SF as stupid without ever bothering to read much of it.
  - ycombinete 9y ago
    Your original comment was great, and this exchange really just cements the point you made there.
nabla9 9y ago
"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read." – Mark Twain I have natural 'aversion' for literary fiction. It's hard for me to get started, so I very rarely read them. But when I finally stumble reading one, I'm usually happy that I did. Example: I have only read one book from Dostoyevsky: 'Notes from Underground'. I chose it because it was short. But oh boy was it deep, heavy and mind bending. I still carry that book with me (figuratively). I don't hesitate to admit that I'm dirty commoner when it comes to literary, but I'm honest enough to admit that there are things 'that would be good for me' and I would love to have read those books but I'm shutting myself out of them. I'm sure literary fiction is full of crap but the best of them are far ahead of commercial genre fiction (there is intersection of genre fiction and literary fiction of course).
theoh 9y ago
That's all well and good in the abstract. In practice, literary culture has long been notorious for cliqueyness and big egos (even narcissism). Affirming general propositions of the form "just because X, Y is not necessarily true" is logically fine. It is just a bit odd to be using glittering generalities to defend, of all things, literary fiction (which is concerned above all else with nuance and particularity).

YouAreGreat 9y ago

> there is a group of people - perhaps small Right, but this post is not about the vanishing of Literary fiction from the face of the earth. A merely shrinking market is obviously consistent with the idea that some (or much) of it formerly sold to people who weren't really enjoying spending hours with a genre almost defined by not having much in the way of story or ideas, which in turn is consistent with the hypothesis that part of the market was sustained by status signaling.

scandox 9y ago
I think again to say "defined by not having much in the way of stories or ideas" is a level of dismissal that suggests something stronger than mere indifference. A lot of people have bad early experiences with literary fiction and I'd agree that when it's bad, it's the worst. But when it's good it can be exceptional. It also does not preclude strong stories, or idea driven stories. Of course a great deal of it is about capturing subjective human experience in a way that - when it fails for a reader - leaves them with nothing. But when it works it can be incredible. Generally what I find is that once peoplelike a work of literary fiction they no longer think of it as "literary" - they sort see it in a category of its own.
- watwut 9y ago
  Most of people who dismiss that category of books this way do it out of prejudice and never read them. It is no different then rejecting SF as stupid without ever bothering to read much of it.
- ycombinete 9y ago
  Your original comment was great, and this exchange really just cements the point you made there.

nabla9 9y ago

"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read." – Mark Twain I have natural 'aversion' for literary fiction. It's hard for me to get started, so I very rarely read them. But when I finally stumble reading one, I'm usually happy that I did. Example: I have only read one book from Dostoyevsky: 'Notes from Underground'. I chose it because it was short. But oh boy was it deep, heavy and mind bending. I still carry that book with me (figuratively). I don't hesitate to admit that I'm dirty commoner when it comes to literary, but I'm honest enough to admit that there are things 'that would be good for me' and I would love to have read those books but I'm shutting myself out of them. I'm sure literary fiction is full of crap but the best of them are far ahead of commercial genre fiction (there is intersection of genre fiction and literary fiction of course).

theoh 9y ago

That's all well and good in the abstract. In practice, literary culture has long been notorious for cliqueyness and big egos (even narcissism). Affirming general propositions of the form "just because X, Y is not necessarily true" is logically fine. It is just a bit odd to be using glittering generalities to defend, of all things, literary fiction (which is concerned above all else with nuance and particularity).