Speaking as someone who has been told my stories are probably towards literary end of things, and also who hears how unpopular literary is with literary agents (oh, the irony) and unlikely to find representation, it’s nice to read about the avant garde getting lauded every now and then. It’d be a dull old world if the only books to buy were police procedurals/psyche thrillers/romantasy (to name three bouyant genres off top of my head). I know literary works are rarely in the middle of the bell curve of life, but they should be appreciated for making the outer edges more interesting! 🙏😊
Years ago I was at a Society of Authors seminar on (IIRC) authors' promotion and marketing, and virtually every single thing the publishers and booksellers on the platform said about it, had a caveat of "Except for lit fic". One's heart did sink just a tad! Fundamentally (it seems to me) it's bloomin' 'ard to come up with ways to sell books for which the writer' wasn't wholly driven by an easily-explained story premise, and whose USP is "You haven't read anything quite like this before".
Except, of course, the trickle-down effect from super-literary work is real. Just as what was useless pure maths a century ago became nuclear physics in the 50s, and is now running our phones, so writing which was weird and challenging for one generation is mainstream now. That's a strong reason for supporting the flat end of the bell-curve with things like prizes: that's where the development and progress comes from, as people who "know what they like" - whcih is really that they like what they know - gradually get to know these new ways of telling stories. The curve moves towards the right ...
I am in the middle of writing about my take on this debate. I like both commercial and literary fiction but not all of either. Too much commercial fiction I find complete drivel while I understand why it was published. Publishers are not charities and employees and owners have to have enough money to keep their jobs and put money on the table to feed and warm the home. On the other hand, I was fortunate enough that when I read Engish Lit at Uni where I read enough fiction, poetry and drama to understand how to read critically, there wer not massive loans. My father earned enough to give me an allowance - the rest was a gift from the goveement.
Yes, I think one of the gifts of a literature degree is the ability to be conscious of what you're reading. (Having said that, I have lots of author friends who said that their English degree actually hampered their writing self, often for a long time...)
Speaking as someone who has been told my stories are probably towards literary end of things, and also who hears how unpopular literary is with literary agents (oh, the irony) and unlikely to find representation, it’s nice to read about the avant garde getting lauded every now and then. It’d be a dull old world if the only books to buy were police procedurals/psyche thrillers/romantasy (to name three bouyant genres off top of my head). I know literary works are rarely in the middle of the bell curve of life, but they should be appreciated for making the outer edges more interesting! 🙏😊
Years ago I was at a Society of Authors seminar on (IIRC) authors' promotion and marketing, and virtually every single thing the publishers and booksellers on the platform said about it, had a caveat of "Except for lit fic". One's heart did sink just a tad! Fundamentally (it seems to me) it's bloomin' 'ard to come up with ways to sell books for which the writer' wasn't wholly driven by an easily-explained story premise, and whose USP is "You haven't read anything quite like this before".
Except, of course, the trickle-down effect from super-literary work is real. Just as what was useless pure maths a century ago became nuclear physics in the 50s, and is now running our phones, so writing which was weird and challenging for one generation is mainstream now. That's a strong reason for supporting the flat end of the bell-curve with things like prizes: that's where the development and progress comes from, as people who "know what they like" - whcih is really that they like what they know - gradually get to know these new ways of telling stories. The curve moves towards the right ...
Hear hear 👏👏👏
I am in the middle of writing about my take on this debate. I like both commercial and literary fiction but not all of either. Too much commercial fiction I find complete drivel while I understand why it was published. Publishers are not charities and employees and owners have to have enough money to keep their jobs and put money on the table to feed and warm the home. On the other hand, I was fortunate enough that when I read Engish Lit at Uni where I read enough fiction, poetry and drama to understand how to read critically, there wer not massive loans. My father earned enough to give me an allowance - the rest was a gift from the goveement.
Yes, I think one of the gifts of a literature degree is the ability to be conscious of what you're reading. (Having said that, I have lots of author friends who said that their English degree actually hampered their writing self, often for a long time...)