[ SECRET POST #2197 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2197 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 048 secrets from Secret Submission Post #314.
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

[fscom]

08. http://i.imgur.com/FqPTK.png

[(Anonymous)]

-shrugs- You like what you like. Personally, I find most older classics about as exciting as paint drying, and find steampunk and vampires to be a little over done these days, so I don't tend to read them*.

*Not saying they aren't/can't be good - just after a certain point I've seen it enough I lose interest.

[(Anonymous)]

I very very rarely read fiction written specifically for adults, even though I'm twenty-four. I swear you can illustrate why that is perfectly by juxtaposing the Harry Potter series with The Casual Vacancy. It's not that the latter is *bad*, exactly (imo, of course), but it's just so...not something I want to read. Despite liking parts of it, I found TCV tedious and cynical, and frankly it seems like most general fiction geared towards adults is going that way these days.

[(Anonymous)]

Can someone define modern literary fiction? It seems to me like a very, very broad term? And I don't see how someone could hate every part of that fandom.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm... sort of of two minds about this, I guess? I'm not sure how I feel.

On the one hand, I do think that, on some kind of fundamental level, there is something that "literature" or "art" does that is different from entertainment, and in some ways more worthwhile. But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with entertainment, and there's plenty wrong with literary fiction as it presently exists - a lot of it is boring, and more than that, a lot of it is closely tied with these myopic, incredibly limited standards for what constitutes literature, which have no inherent connection to the idea of literary fiction. A lot of stuff that's considered literary fiction is pretty crap, and a lot of fantasy and science fiction is much more entertaining; some of it is even valuable from a literary standpoint.

So, I don't think I disagree with you, but I also kind of want to defend literary fiction - I think the really important thing here is to throw out the crappy, nonsense ideas about what literature is. I think your point here isn't wrong, so much as it's giving credence to the same bad ideas fostered by the people who make the boring litfiction.

I hope that doesn't make me an elitist and I'm not just rambling like a crazy person.

[elephantinegrace]

There are some great classics that one can inhale in a weekend. That being said, there are some classics which are probably better as dinner than entertainment, much like literature snobs who like to rub it in that they think they read better books than everyone else.

[(Anonymous)]

What are some popular books in the literary fiction genre that came out last year, 2011, and/or 2010?

[lovelycudy]

I prefer 19th century/pre 1950 literature most of the time, but whatever floats your boat.

Honest question: is there some sort of discrimination against YA books readers? Because I've seen this stuff around.

[chardmonster]

I'm just going to stay over here angry that someone has coined the term litfic

Litfic

"I don't read litfic like Moby Dick"

LITFIC

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, bashing YA and literary fiction in the same secret! Can't say I ever expected to see that.

Where's a popcorn gif when you need one?

[(Anonymous)]

I've read some wonderful YA fic and some wonderful Lit fic. There's great stuff in both, but people are going to like what they like. If people prefer one over the other, there's nothing wrong with that, although badmouthing people for liking either is shitty. Read what you enjoy and don't worry about what people say.

[(Anonymous)]

is the OP referencing the Parasol Protectorate series in this secret?
I hope they are because I am reading those books atm and 'crappy YA' or no they are SO MUCH FUN and a fantastic breather from the French Realist stuff I read for uni :D

[(Anonymous)]

Steampunk and vampires sounds like a pretty fun combination to me. Is this, er...a real series that exists, or just a made-up example?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm heartily sick of this "Literature is boring! I only read YA books! I'm such a badass!" fad. Yawn.

[kallanda_lee]

I hate that I sort of agree with this.

[intrigueing]

IA on modern "literature" being unbearably dull and lifeless, but I got so overloaded on shitty teen vampire/sci-fi/steampunk/utopian/dystopian/magical lit during high school I can't stand that either (seriously - in my school library almost every single book had the exact same fucking stock plot of "teenage girl/guy finds school meaningless and humanity shallow and has pretentious navel-gazing manpain until s/he meets cardboard-cutout Manic Pixie Dream Guy/Girl who gives him/her half-assed inspiration for college" some of which had tired speculative fiction tropes sprinkled on it to make them look more quirky).

I pretty much only read older fiction, with some exceptions. I find modern film and television to generally be vastly superior to modern literature.

[(Anonymous)]

This secret is just making me wish there was such a thing as adult fiction with steampunk vampires.

(Not that there's anything wrong with YA.)

[caeliluminar]

...Are there actually books with steampunk vampires?

[blueonblue]

1. Not all literary fiction is Alice Munro with sad white people having feelings.
2. Reading, like almost everything else, is a habit. If you usually read steampunk YA with vampires, those books become easier and more fun to read and everything else becomes harder.
3. I'm a little tired of YA and genre readers acting like they're oppressed when they dominate book conversation online. Goodreads, blogs, tumblr, there are so many readers and writers talking about books. Places like absolute write and nanowrimo are filled with people writing YA and genre stories. There is nothing like that for literary fiction. Maybe in the real world people frown at adults reading books about teenagers, but there is a huge community that doesn't.

[ex_valour601]

I wouldn't phrase it the same way, but I fall into either camp depending how saturated I am. I read a lot of modern fiction in school and tend not to like it, but I also take a lot of Children's Lit/YA Lit classes and get saturated there (and then there's being online, too). I just finished a Modern Brit Lit class last semester and wanted to violently throw the majority of the books once I was done with them.

Honestly, at this point I'll read anything that interests me and doesn't show its seams on the first go. I still pick genre fiction first over modern or contemporary fiction, but I do find awesome stuff in the latter thanks to crazy professors and my friends. Murakami's my kind of weirdo, as long as I don't read too many of his books at once.

[(Anonymous)]

You must be me, OP. Up to my ears in ~*~literature, and it's the crappy genre fiction that moves me. Welp.

[netbug009]

I'm kinda sick of vampires but I get the sentiment behind this. YA tends to have a lot more neat plots, even if a lot of it isn't as ~artistic~

[velvet_mace]

I'm not so secretly of the opinion that the vast bulk of literary fiction will be forgotten nearly instantly, while the books that become the literary classics of tomorrow will probably be taken from the genre and best seller shelves. For that matter, many of the most loved classics we read today were best sellers and genre fiction of yesteryear.

[(Anonymous)]

Bad YA urban fantasy killed my love of steampunk back when I was in high school. Now that I haven't touched one of the books in years, I'm starting to love it again.

...So, does anyone have any recs of good steampunk YA novels?

[thene]

I don't often take to either steampunk or vampires, but I just want to say that all the litfic I've tried has been indulgent and boring and The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan is bad, unpleasant, dull AND triggering and I therefore count him as the worst published writer I've ever tried to read.