Book Rambling: How and Why We Judge Books

I know I owe you a ton of posts right now* but we gonna put those off a little longer in order to talk about something I feel needs addressing. It touches on a topic that's covered in Maureen Johnson's Coverflip  and had tons of people talking about it two weeks ago, but the more I think about it, the more it has to do with something else entirely.

Last weekend, my sister told me that I am not very good at recommending books for her. Not that I don't shove books under her nose and say, "Read this, it is awesome." I do that all the time, but she almost never agrees with my taste in books.

This should not come as a surprise to me. She's read 2 memoirs/autobiographies within the last 3 months, and the fiction books she's read recently are all literary. The only memoirs I've read were for school, and I didn't even finish most of them. And while I'll pick up a literary fiction book now and again, they are very few and far between the genre books. I know very well that we do not have similar reading tastes.

And yet, I couldn't help but feel a bit of judgment in her statement of the facts. It was like my books were lesser in quality than hers. And in most people's opinions, her memoirs and literary novels are considered more worthy of accolades than my mysteries, fantasies, and fairy tale retellings, particularly the YA ones.

I don't want to regurgitate the boys vs. girls covers talk everybody had last week regarding Coverflip, or about how we got to having girly covers and supposed 'gender neutral' covers.

I want to talk about the differences between genre books (including romances, YA contemporary fiction, and fantasies, which have a large percentage of female authors, are primarily marketed for women and are more likely to have headless girls on the covers) and literary novels (which are more likely to have abstract or text-based covers), and why the latter get to be distinguished works of art while the former are forms of mindless entertainment.

Defining Literary Fiction

Determining what classifies a novel as literary is extremely subjective. The standard definition is a novel that has "literary merit", that has the "power to endure". Rather than wait a hundred years to see if it lasts, critics instead are stuck with comparing recent publications to the classics that have already stood the test of time. Men's opportunities to write and be read far outweighed those of women back in the days the classics were first being written, so in order to be literary now, you have to meet the criteria of books that were written mostly by men.

Is it just me, or do dudes have a bit of an advantage here? Are they not, by definition, more capable of writing 'like men', whatever that means? And before someone starts yelling at me for being sexist or something, I'm not saying that no classics were written by women, because obviously many were****, and I'm not saying that women can't write books comparable to the classics written by men, because that's obviously not true either.

What I am saying is that women should not have to fit into the dudebro writing style in order to achieve literary status. I don't think anyone should fit into any particular sort of box in order to be literary, but I think guys get away with breaking the rules more than girls.

For instance, the novel Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk was written to mimic the style of fashion magazines. Dude writes a book about a former model, using fashion magazine language and even lists the chapters out of order with instructions on where to continue the story a la Choose Your Own Adventure style in order to truly capture the fashion magazine feel. Dude gets massive accolades for brilliant satire, and book achieves Serious Adult Novel status, if not necessarily a literary one.

Can we all imagine for a second if Charlotte Palahniuk wrote a book mimicking the style of a fashion magazine? Can you imagine any critic even bothering to read it before dismissing it as a silly, girly book?

I can't.

Judging a Book by its Cover

I went to Barnes and Noble a few days ago, and after looking through the YA section, I perused the fiction/literature section, and came across Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin. I was surprised to find that my initial reaction to seeing it in that section was a negative one. I did not understand why this book was here instead of in the romance section.

Noteworthy point: I have not read the book. I made this assumption based on the movie trailer, the movie plot summary with spoilers, and the light pink cover with a picture of an engagement ring. 

I was willing to throw this book out of the fiction/literature section, a book that could very well be a Serious Adult Novel, all because of my preconceived notions on what the book was about.

While it is embarrassing to admit to this stupid thought, I want to acknowledge when I am in the wrong so I can figure out where these backwards ideas come from and rewire my brain to prevent it from happening again. I saw a book written by a woman featuring a love triangle, and I assumed it was a romance novel.

Genre vs. Plain Ol’ Fiction

How we categorize books is another interesting topic to discuss, especially when it comes to romance. If a book contains even a smidge of fantasy, western, science fiction, or mystery elements to it, it automatically gets filed under that genre. Romantic entanglements are used as the main or subplots in most books, and yet most books are not automatically filed under romance. Why are some books romances and others are just fiction?

I don’t know the answer to this question. I don’t even know if there is an answer to this question, as I don’t read romance books and am rather confused about the whole genre in particular. Based on the covers in bookstores, the main difference I can see is that fiction is usually not marketed to either gender in particular, while romances are usually marketed to women. Whether or not there is a clear distinction between romances and fiction books with romance, I think it is a good question to think about, particularly when you see the marketing differences and the overwhelming criticism for one over the other.

My Book’s Better Than Your Book

So I’ve rambled on quite a bit about how we as individuals and people at large classify books as various genres as opposed to plain old fiction, and how one method of evaluating the literary merit of a book can be sexist. But this doesn’t explain why some books are considered art forms and some are considered mindless entertainment. Coverflip has led to many discussions about how and why overtly feminine things have a negative connotation to them, but I think there’s a larger question that is being ignored.

Why do we judge categories of books as good or bad?

We are all told that literary books are at the top of the food chain, and that romance books are closer to the bottom***. But why is there a food chain anyway? Why do we feel the need to put any genre below others?

To hazard a guess, I’m going to go back to my sister’s comment on my taste in books. She merely stated that she does not like the same books as me, and I inferred that she believed her books were better. Whether she thinks this or not is irrelevant. The point is that people have personal opinions that vary greatly, and we all can be a little sensitive when someone else disagrees with our personal assessment of something we love. It’s hard to hear “This isn’t for me” without inferring “This is bad.” It’s even harder to recognize when people say, “This is bad” when they actually meant, “This isn’t for me.” And what is the easiest way to justify what we read? Putting down something else. 

Have you ever thought to yourself:

I may not read classic literature, but at least I don’t read ____.

I know I have.

I don’t know what the solution to any of this is, but I’m a big believer in knowing what the problem is before you can solve it. Now that I realize I am a bit insecure about the books I read, I’ve decided to double my efforts to read more classics in addition to my normal reads, which will open me up to new experiences and give me some confidence in my own preferences. And if anyone tries to comment on my reading habits, I can point out that while I do occasionally read Serious Adult Books****, the fact that I like my YA books more maybe says more about the merit of YA than it does about me.

And who knows? Maybe I'll find something my sister will actually like.

Happy reading,

Katie

*To name a few: spoiler review of Demon's Covenant, spoiler and non-spoiler reviews for Divergent, spoiler and non-spoiler reviews for Murder Past Due, etc.

**Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Anne Bronte, Harper Lee, Alice Walker, Lorraine Hansberry, to name a few.
***I don't think this is a correct assessment of the romance genre, but it is a popular opinion.

***Gregory Maguire, Chuck Palaniuk, Jodi Picoult, Gaston Leroux, Sara Gruen, to name a few authors I've read out of personal choice and greatly enjoy.