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.
