When I was about halfway through the writing of Rules
for Giving, the discussion (or perhaps argument) of genre started. A few
people labeled it literary fiction. My initial reaction was, “Oh, I’m not that
good,” or perhaps, “This is too straightforward a style of writing to be
considered literary fiction.”
One member of my critique group labeled it “womens’ fiction from a man’s point of view.” Not exactly what I was going for, but since women purchase most books, that’s not the worst place to be.
Then I read a novel by a relatively unknown writer and found it difficult to categorize. Commercial or literary fiction? I went so far as to email him. His answer was something along the lines of, “Ah, yes, the genre question. The best advice I can give you is to write the novel and see where it ends up.” Translated: Write the damn thing and let someone else decide for you.
At the Southern California Writers’ Conference I was sitting next to a publisher who really burst my bubble. He explained how his firm specialized in genre fiction (which I think really translates into vampire, zombie and paranormal novels). He explained the genre novels are easier to sell because the readers are easier to find. Commercial fiction is harder to sell because the readers are all over.
“Then there is literary fiction,” he said, “which is the hardest to sell. Those readers are really hard to find and target.”
So we are still left with the question: Is it contemporary fiction, or is it literary fiction?
Here are some definitions I have been given for literary fiction:
- Literary fiction incorporates a more sophisticated level of writing.
- Literary fiction typically pits a protagonist against himself as opposed to some external villain.
- Commercial fiction is written for readers. Literary fiction is written to impress other writers (honestly, some one actually said this, and they were in a position to know)
Then today I logged onto TheMillions.com, and clicked on a piece about literary fiction. Not sure I still know what literary fiction is after I read it. By the way, SPOILER ALERT: do not read this link if you have not yet read Swamplandia.
Then I texted a friend of mine who has read parts of my novel. He has an MFA, so I think he is in a position to know. My question—Is my novel commercial fiction, or is it literary?
His answer: “Tough call. It is literary because it is intelligent and deals with Gavin's [the protagonist] existential* crisis. But if you present it as literary to an agent or publisher, it narrows the audience and also its marketability. I would call it general fiction or commercial.”
That settles it. My novel is commercial fiction.
In writing this, I have come up with a few definitions of my own about what constitutes literary fiction:
- If, twenty-five or fifty years after your novel is published, people are still talking about it, then it is literary. If it makes a high school or college reading list someplace, then it is really literary.”
- I can’t define literary fiction, but I know it when I see it (paraphrased from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who was explaining his definition of pornography).
- The difference between contemporary fiction and literary fiction is lighting (paraphrased from adult film actress Gloria Leonard who was explaining the difference between pornography and erotica).
I think I’ve beat this one to death.
* Stay tuned for tomorrow's blog post, a conversation with my nephew the philosphy major about the definition of existentialism.
See ya’ later
WhatIfYouCouldNotFail.com by Tim Sunderland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Comments