[ SECRET POST #2954 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2954 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Phineas & Ferb]


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[Roger Delgado]


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06.
(Dangan Ronpa)


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08.
[All Time Low]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 024 secrets from Secret Submission Post #422.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[intrigueing]

Yeah, I hate those jackasses.

Also, I personally think much of the popular and genre fiction I've read is a hell of a lot more meaningful and memorable in getting me to comprehend ideas that help me be a more insightful and understanding human being than most literary fiction.

A large proportion of literary fiction is pretty much just well-crafted, impressive writecraft devoid of all the things that make stories actually important to human society -- and being intelligible to people who don't have the privilege of having enough education and leisure time to read giant tomes of philosophy/political science/sociology/history is probably the most valuable thing about stories.

And a lot of classics were popular "trash" when they were first written, they survived because guess what, people who like popular fun stories ARE, in fact, smart enough to recognize and remember and pass along powerful and meaningful stories when they see them, no matter how modest the story's plot and vocabulary may be.

[(Anonymous)]

The problem I have with this is that, to me, it looks a lot like the arguments that the selfsame pop elitists make. I'm someone who really does like all kinds of books, and it is annoying to me to hear that some arbitrary portion of the books that I like are worthless or devoid of meaning simply because they're not to someone's taste. Of course you're saying it in a much more reasonable & respectful way than a lot of people do (see other comments in this thread about "It's all just a lot of self-important wanking" etc) but, god damn it, I really, really enjoy reading Proust and I shouldn't have to apologize for that.

Of course any given work may or may not be trash. But I don't like the idea of making that assessment based on such broad generalizations. Either with genre fiction or with literary fiction.

No personal beef with you, just to be clear! It's just a view that gets aired a lot here that grinds my gears. Whether or not it's more common or more wrong than the more traditional kind of literary snobbery I have no idea.

[intrigueing]

Oh, no, don't get me wrong. This is not to mean that lit fic is fundamentally worse than pop fic, just that a) a piece of pop fic can be just as good or better than a piece of lit fic, and b) pop fic has some unique strengths that very few lit fics achieve. I like all kinds of books too, including some pretty pretentious ones, but while most pieces of popular fiction that actually are trashy are (rightly) described as trash, there are many pieces of literary fiction that have just as little substance and meaning, but are held up as omg so good just because the writing sounds more ~deep~ And, actually really good and meaningful lit fic is (rightly) celebrated as a great book, while actually good and meaningful pop fic is still dropped into a genre ghetto because of its surface traits.

What I was trying to say is it isn't a straight gradient from lit fic to pop fic for me. Quality writing pops up in all different kinds of stories, the vehicle it comes in isn't actually that important, IMO. But the fact that some lit fic is better than some pop fic is blindingly obvious to most people. The fact that, also, some pop fic is better than some lit fic is not.

[(Anonymous)]

Thiiiiis. I'm pretty much afraid to admit online with my name or regular pseud that I'm writing "literary" contemporary fiction. Because on writing sites where the number one rule is respect everyone!!! it's totally okay to say literary fiction is boring and no one really likes it or reads it except academics and critics and it's all navel-gazing with no plot.

I've read, reviewed, recced and even taught using genre fiction; it's just the stories I want to tell don't fit there.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm on both sides of this divide.

I love high-concept literary fiction. I'm sick of being told that I've only pretended to read books I've actually read many times and loved, because "nobody can read that many books". Or that I read the classics only for bragging rights. Absolutely not. There's a reason a lot of these books are classics, and that's because they're fun to read.

On the other side, I absolutely hate pretentious writing. Like you say, ones that are devoid of anything that makes stories important, like interesting characters or a coherent plot, because it's all sacrificed for impressive prose. To me these writers just feel scared of showing real, everyday emotions in case people will laugh at them.

I love reading widely. I love reading trash.

The worst literary snobs I've met are ones who only read moderately. I don't know what it is, perhaps they're overwhelmed by the sheer number of books and so have to cut down their options by sneering at a large proportion of genres?

I wouldn't trust anyone's literary taste who doesn't read everything they can find: bonkbusters, old classics, literary fiction, populist shlock and all. There are some genres I avoid these days (war fiction, horror) because all the ones I tried turned out not to appeal. But at least I dipped my toe in.

A lot of "classics" were banned at some point in their history. I was surprised to discover this. It made me look at classic fiction in a whole new light and is the single most worthwhile thing I discovered in my one year studying literature at college.

[intrigueing]

Banned Books Week is my favorite thing, my high school used to host it every year where they'd prominently display classics that were banned all over the library, with info cards listing the reasons why they were banned. :) I agree that it's awesome and really telling.

[(Anonymous)]

That is such a good idea! I would have loved it when I was a teenager.

Too often classic books seem like this huge dusty off-putting wall of old stuff when actually many of them are really rather scandalous, racy or funny.