What does Literary mean in this context?

JustSarah · Nov 19, 2016

I've taken a break to get my head sorted out. Long story short, my nasty room mate is out the door, and setting up shop in a temporary residence until they can find work at Del Taco--surprisingly good Taco place.

In any case, recently one of my books was labeled Literary. All fine and good, I guess... Although I was under the impression Literary meant Realistic Fiction of the highest caliber.

I mean I can see why the book above was called that, I mean a lot of my plots can be in any sort of book: Historical, Romance, Mystery, honestly what ever. A lot of them tend to be very ... General ou Realistic in nature.

I mean generally I have preferred plots that borrow from the real world before ... well until crazy stuff begins happening. I guess I was under the impression Lite Science Fiction isn't usually given a literary label.

I mean I knew going in people would probably think it be more Contemporary going in, despite one of the MC being a reincarnation of a murderess from 1838 Alsace. I've been kind of hesitating to publish it, because I'm not sure ... at least in some circles, it seems like there is a bit of a stigma going from Science Fiction to Realistic Fiction. I've seen it with my favorite author William Gibson. Maybe that's just my perception.

I mean at some point it's sink or swim, and so far reception ... has been a lot better than I was expecting. Which wasn't much at all.

David Foster Wallace, Chuck Palahniuk, the lady who wrote that one Magic Realism story about a woman haunted by her baby, that's generally what I think of when I think "Literary."

I'm entirely unsure how to go forward from here. My recent work has taken a weird turn to ... for example, being about my experience with an unpleasant room mate, but with a slight element of Surrealism thrown in.

Then I go and write The Mortal Avatar. I must say I truly can't predict where my stories go now. And I like it.

latieplolo · Nov 19, 2016

I'm not sure about your book specifically, but in my own personal opinion, "Literary" is a distinction that is more about the reading experience than the content of the story. I think most genre novels are read for entertainment: they're fun, engaging, exciting, but not terribly difficult. You can fully understand genre work on the first read-through. That doesn't mean it can't be well written, but it means that the reader is interested more in relaxing with a good book than challenging themselves with difficult concepts.

Literary, then, is a novel that challenges you. You'll need to read it through two or three times, maybe discuss it with someone who has a very different perspective than your own, to pick up on all of the subtleties and ideas. Literary novels aren't so much page-turners. If I pick up something labeled Literary, then I expect to have a slow but rewarding reading experience. I expect a work of Literature not just to be a good story, but to say something. That's my two cents.

Mrs-Q · Nov 19, 2016

I've read a lot of books and I have no idea what anyone means by "literary" unless they tell me first. There are some modern literary authors who write boring, sentimental, unchallenging, poorly constructed dreck. I have a pretty high tolerance for pretentious faffery in books, and my goodness some authors and their literary affectations annoy me. I truck with Cormick McCarthy, but 90% of the people who dropped quotation marks to ape him need to not. And New Sincerity is sometimes just treacle. And many of them can't write a love scene to save their souls.

There are some genre authors I think are far more brilliant, subversive, and challenging.

For anything published in the last ten years, I treat it like a marketing genre and not a sign of quality. After fifty years "literary" tends to mean "stands the test of time." I think that does a disservice to people now. Ursula K. LeGuinn is now revered, but so many of her books were pulp sold for a nickel. She is, suddenly, literary. She's got some fantastic salt built up:

A lot of people still maintain genre prejudice. I still meet matrons who tell me kindly that their children enjoyed my books but of course they never read them, and people who make sure I know they don’t read that space-ship stuff. No, no, they read Literature—realism. Like The Help, or Fifty Shades of Grey.

josephperin · Nov 19, 2016

I'm trying to figure out what 'literate' thriller means. Saw it on an agent's website

Old Hack · Nov 20, 2016

latieplolo said:
I'm not sure about your book specifically, but in my own personal opinion, "Literary" is a distinction that is more about the reading experience than the content of the story. I think most genre novels are read for entertainment: they're fun, engaging, exciting, but not terribly difficult. You can fully understand genre work on the first read-through. That doesn't mean it can't be well written, but it means that the reader is interested more in relaxing with a good book than challenging themselves with difficult concepts.

Literary, then, is a novel that challenges you. You'll need to read it through two or three times, maybe discuss it with someone who has a very different perspective than your own, to pick up on all of the subtleties and ideas. Literary novels aren't so much page-turners. If I pick up something labeled Literary, then I expect to have a slow but rewarding reading experience. I expect a work of Literature not just to be a good story, but to say something. That's my two cents.

I disagree with this very strongly. I've read books of literary fiction which were amazing page-turners, which were clear and very easy to follow and understand, and which were also breathtakingly beautiful.

Mrs-Q said:
I've read a lot of books and I have no idea what anyone means by "literary" unless they tell me first. There are some modern literary authors who write boring, sentimental, unchallenging, poorly constructed dreck. I have a pretty high tolerance for pretentious faffery in books, and my goodness some authors and their literary affectations annoy me. I truck with Cormick McCarthy, but 90% of the people who dropped quotation marks to ape him need to not. And New Sincerity is sometimes just treacle. And many of them can't write a love scene to save their souls.

There are some genre authors I think are far more brilliant, subversive, and challenging.

For anything published in the last ten years, I treat it like a marketing genre and not a sign of quality. After fifty years "literary" tends to mean "stands the test of time." I think that does a disservice to people now. Ursula K. LeGuinn is now revered, but so many of her books were pulp sold for a nickel. She is, suddenly, literary. She's got some fantastic salt built up:

I wonder: would you describe genre books as "boring, sentimental, unchallenging, poorly constructed dreck"? And if a writer of literary fiction did, would you accuse them of denigrating the genre, or of failing to respect their fellow writer?

josephperin said:
I'm trying to figure out what 'literate' thriller means. Saw it on an agent's website

Ha! That made me laugh. I would hope that all published books were literate, at least.

What does literary mean for the OP? We can't know, as we don't know the book, or who made the comment, or why they did. Some more context would help; but if I were you, OP, I'd ask the person who said this what they meant.

What does Literary mean in this context?

JustSarah

latieplolo

Mrs-Q

josephperin

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman