Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > "Real literature" and fantasy/sci-fi/genre fiction
 
  • Locked thread
ShinsoBEAM!
Nov 6, 2008

"Even if this body of mine is turned to dust, I will defend my country."
Literary books get "mainstream credibility" but unless Opera recommends it or some other celebrity it's probably going to get ignored by most of the public. Genre fiction in many ways has the same problem where it mostly only gets noticed if it has a tv or movie adaption then when the one odd book out gets noticed outside of that it's something like Name of the Wind :negative:

But overall as a genre reader I feel like we have the better end of it. There appear to be enough heavy genre readers to keep the prolific indie authors writing and tons of sub-communities that can kill whatever itch you are looking to scratch. This might also be true for literary works too and I just don't know what to look for.

Mel Mudkiper posted:

I am talking about perceptions.

For example, in reality for all the assumed popularity of genre fiction it makes almost no money

Genre fiction appears to be making pretty good money in the self published market. Just push out a ton of stuff and as long as it's moderately passable you will eventually start moving books on amazon kindle.

* # ¿ Jul 18, 2017 15:03
  • Quote
Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 22, 2024 08:07
  • Quote
ShinsoBEAM!
Nov 6, 2008

"Even if this body of mine is turned to dust, I will defend my country."

Wheat Loaf posted:

I'm not sure how to delineate the categories. "Genre" fiction is more than just sci-fi and fantasy, right? Something like, say, Nero Wolfe mysteries or romance novels would be "genre" fiction, yes? I assume that must be the case.

As for what constitutes "literary fiction", I'm not sure. I've seen the term used to refer to Cormac McCarthy, as an example, but I've read all his books and I've always just thought of them as westerns (for the most part) rather than "literary". Same with Joseph Conrad, who's another I've seen given the appellation; most of that's standard adventure fare of its time in my mind.

No doubt someone will be able to disabuse me of my misconceptions. Maybe those examples I've cited aren't "literary" or "real literature" and I'm simply confused. :shrug:

The best way I had it explained to me was

Literature focus on
Writing Quality > Deeper Meaning > Characters > Plot

While genre more or less goes
Plot > Characters > Writing Quality > Deeper Meaning

* # ¿ Jul 20, 2017 15:37
  • Quote
  • Locked thread
The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > "Real literature" and fantasy/sci-fi/genre fiction