Read enough genre fiction? Why not try Literature?

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Read enough genre fiction? Why not try Literature?

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Antivehicular recommended Death Comes for the Archbishop in the chat thread, and I am seconding it. I also recommend Ann Petry's The Street, which I have nominated for BotM a few times. Deeply moving and insightful books that are also very approachable.

Edit: I just remembered that I recommended The Master and Margarita (read the Burgin/O'Connor translation, or else the Ginsburg) the last time someone asked for newbie Real Literature recommendations. It's a particularly good choice for genre fans because it's paced like a thriller and is full of fantastical imagery, but it's much more than that too. Hell of a book.

Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Jun 1, 2020

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Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

ToxicFrog posted:

E: like, until they came up here it never occurred to me to think of Rose or Foucault's Pendulum as Literature, partly because they both seem to belong to existing genres (historical mystery and conspiratorial thriller respectively) and partly because they're fun and accessible reads

This is why people were pointing out in the other thread(s) that "literary" as a category of fiction is largely meaningless and why I made a point to distinguish "serious" rather than "literary" fiction from TBB's usual fare (also an inadequate word, to be sure).

# ¿ Jun 1, 2020 19:27

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

ToxicFrog posted:

I'm no longer entirely sure what the point of this post was, except perhaps to explain why I was so surprised to see Eco represented here -- his books are fun, gripping, accessible�, and slot neatly into existing genre categories, i.e. everything that literary fiction isn't (or, at least, everything that the loudest proponents of literary fiction seem to want it not to be).

Serious reading is fun and gripping, if not always very accessible. Nobody in the Real Literature thread is setting down The Dictionary of the Khazars and saying, "Hm, yes, I am smart," with a stroke at the beard and a sip from the snifter. In fact, people are reading these books because they actually like them. This is how people in that thread post about what they're reading:

Lil Mama Im Sorry posted:

holy poo poo The Blind Owl is loving awesome. it gives you one of those great feelings as a reader a third of the way in that you're reading something really special.

Ras Het posted:

Imo that page is really funny since its contextualised like "look! this author likes piss" and then the content is basically "look! this character likes piss". It's like the author is preparing his own explanation for liking piss

derp posted:

I love how you get sucked into the bizarre mind-state of GH, but when you pull yourself back and think of the objective reality of what actually happened in the book, its kind of loving hilarious.

OscarDiggs posted:

Missed the BOTM Thread for it so I'll have to post here, but goddamn was Lincoln In The Bardo amazing. I'm just beating myself that it took me so long to get through. I was sorta hesitant when in one breath everyone was praising it, and on the other you were talking about all the dick and orgy jokes but I just can't imagine it without them.

As a filthy genre reader, this book made me get it. I have never had the thoughts or feelings that I had from reading Lincoln in the Bardo with any other book, except for maybe the Discworld books. Where do I go from here?

Edit: Yikes. I didn't mean for all that gushing to be at the top of the page. Apologies.

jagstag posted:

it's cool to like books

It is cool to like books.

ToxicFrog posted:

Yeah, I don't think it actually needs an elaborate response, I'm just kvetching about the tendency to present literature and genre as fundamental opposites and then use that false divide as an excuse to poo poo on people who enjoy genre fiction

You're missing the point. I have about ten Cherryh novels on my shelf. I have this thing on my shelf, which is... certainly no Cherryh. Genre fiction has no shortage of good books to read, and only an idiot would deny the literary worth of Raymond Chandler or Philip K. Dick, and even the trashiest pulp has as much of a right to be read and engaged with as any other book. But genre fiction is also bound by ingrained, self-perpetuating habits and mentalities that are very limiting overall � it's not everything, but plenty of people are content with making it all they read because they're comfortable with it, and it's deeply saddening to see readers retreat into this incestuous insularity and avoid anything that even threatens to push the edges of their comfort zone, on the assumption that it would be a joyless chore because it isn't what they've already read a thousand times, and with the sour-grapes assurance that anyone who does like it must be tricking themselves into seeing clothes on the emperor. People get derisive about this because it is fundamentally juvenile, like refusing to eat anything but pizza. It's not a constructive reaction, but it's rooted in disappointment more than self-aggrandizement (which obviously is there too). "Genre fiction" is not a problem; the problem is what people do with it.

ToxicFrog posted:

That and wondering who the Umberto Eco of sci-fi is

There isn't one. There isn't a Joyce or a Rabelais or a Nabokov of sci-fi either (except for Nabokov himself when he wrote Ada, or Ardor). This is more or less my point.

ToxicFrog posted:

On the plus side, this thread has reminded me that (a) there's still a bunch of Eco I haven't read and (b) I should reread Rose now that I'm older and hopefully better able to appreciate it.

I think that's another part of it. People will make up their minds about this stuff when they're kids and don't have the frame of reference to appreciate it. I wonder if half the books you slogged through while wishing you were reading Cherryh would have the same effect today.

# ¿ Jun 2, 2020 01:13

Sham bam bamina!: Nov 6, 2012; ƨtupid cat

Famethrowa posted:

What kinda tricks do you guys use to read real nice smelling physical books uhhhh one-handed? it's kinda taxing to do. I see these neato page holder things that slot over their finger, anyone try them?

im making a sex joke but its because of a physical limitation irl.

More or less what derp said. It is very easy. I will take a picture when I'm off work.

Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jun 2, 2020

# ¿ Jun 2, 2020 22:50