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> 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 shrinkin
by 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 agoI 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 agoMost 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 agoYour original comment was great, and this exchange really just cements the point you made there.