How To Make Literary Fiction Sexy Again
Popular literary agent Nathan Bransford recently posted about the recurring reports of literary fiction’s death. In the conclusion of the post, Nathan posed this question:
“Major publishers are publishing fewer literary novels. Review space is almost nonexistent. The Internet has empowered the crowd at the expense of elites. Could it be real this time?”
I do believe literary fiction is in the middle of a downward spiral originating in the post modern era (Why Is Literary Fiction So Unpopular?). But I do not believe it will ever die. In fact, I believe we can revive literary fiction and restore sales, readership and authorship to respectable levels.
We just have to make literary fiction sexy again. Here’s how:
Return to Plot
If anything has damaged literary fiction significantly, it’s the abandonment of that story element which most appeals to the common man. Plot. Long before languages matured enough to allow the excessive linguistic masturbation common to literary novels, man has needed to know the What, When and Where. Literary writers need to embrace plot as much as they do characterization.
Destroy and Rewrite English/Lit Syllabuses
A large number of defections from the literary fiction fold occur the second teachers and professors hand out reading assignments to their students. In classrooms everywhere, students are forced to exchange the pleasures of reading great literary fiction for the rigors of academic compulsion. Even worse, they are assigned many of the very “Classics” that reside far apart from the average person’s ability or desire. The result? Comments like this: “I’d rather read the back of a bus ticket than read Woolf again to be honest” from a post on the guardian book blog.
Organize
We (literary writers) have frequently (and rightfully) rejected the classification of literary fiction as a genre. But our opposition has also stopped us from organizing effectively. Writers in genres like romance (RWA) and horror (HWA) have formed full blown associations to advocate for them. More importantly, these genres have significant numbers of genre related blogs which are extremely important in creating word of mouth and discovering new talent. I see these networks and connections even among the blogs I read on a daily basis.
New Blood, New Energy
Nothing kills a good thing like the same old thing, ask the publishing industry. . We need writers with personality; assholes, nice guys, alcoholics, atheists, priestesses, womanizers and man eaters. More scandal, more shock and awe, more literary outsiders like Joshua Cohen who might kick your ass and sleep with your wife. We also need new blood in publishing houses and the press, professionals who are brave enough to tackle the “literary fiction doesn’t sell” meme head on. We are more than the bland niceties we show the world.
Literary fiction may be the fuddy duddy of fiction right now but we can change its trajectory. We can bring readers back and we can fulfill every need they seek in the written word; all without sacrificing the things that make literary fiction the highest form of the art.
Do you think literary fiction can be relevant again? Any ideas for how to make this happen?
UPDATE: Scott F Bailey has a wonderful and painfully honest post up on his blog disputing the fact that literary fiction is dying at all. It’s worth the jump: Literary Fiction Dead? Really?
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I think of Literary Fiction as “intelligent” fiction…not from am elistist standpoint but more from the standpoint of a work being crafted with learned care. The work is layered, it’s complex; it wants us to enjoy the story but also to think about the concepts, themes, symbols – it forces us to look at the big picture of our lives and the lives of others. Herein lies the problem; not very many folks want to think – they don’t really even want to know the details – the want quick facts – sound bites, status updates, and gossip. The folks who read novels want stories where only shallow thinking is needed – entertain, inform, spoonfeed me empty emotion. I’m not sure how to change the trajectory of society at large but I do know that the publishers will follow the money.
Great points T.
That was my first response to Nathan’s post. The literary fiction equivalents in movies, theater and music are all feeling the pinch too. High art is feeling the pinch across the board. Maybe great culture is dying?
At the end of the day though, I think it’s up to literary writers to change things. If we get readers to come back to literary fiction, publishers will follow for the money (just like you said).
When not laid off…grrr – I teach English Lit. and Writing to High Schoolers….I think maybe they are the key to the future of High Art. That is, if we can pry them away from the damn Vampires ;)
Ha! The odds are slim, we can only hope that vampires become uncool again. You must have incredible insight into how students receive these classics they are assigned. Do you think the classics turn many budding readers away?
As an English Teacher I hate to say this, but I think many times it is the way in which the classics are taught that turn kids away. Even if a novel is one hundred or one thousand years old, the teacher must find something in it to make it relevant or kids will shut down and for many, the idea if reading literature will be forever associated with forced facts and antiquated ideas. Teachers must reframe these facts and ideas to reflect modern life – especially the modern lives of teens…easier said than done but worth the effort. Good experiences foster pleasant feelings – make it feel good and now you’ve got them hooked.
That’s such a great distinction, T.
Maybe it’s not the classics themselves but how they are taught. I do wonder how difficult it would be to make the classic relevant to Generation V (the vampire generation). I read Goethe’s The Suffering of Young Werther at a time when I was rather heartbroken and I absolutely loved it. Almost everyone else I’ve spoken to about that book thinks Werther is an insufferable whiner (which he is lol). Guess what I’m trying to say is sometimes we can’t squeeze relevancy out of material that is not inherently relevant.
I just finished Rock Island Line and Driftless by David Rhodes and I assure you that literary fiction is by no means dead, or even sickly….
Lisa,
There are still so many great literary writers aren’t there? The reason I worry for literary fiction is that we are losing relevancy to the average person. IMO Literary fiction possesses the greatest depth and value for readers and when vampire soft porn touches them more than literary fiction does, we have a problem.
Thanks for stopping by!
Hi. i found you on the blog hop. I’m bookmarking you so I can come back when I have more time because I like what I see. No offense to anyblogger else, but you sound worth reading!
Thanks for stopping by Dianne and for your kind words. I’m off to check out your blog now.
Which Wolff are you speaking of, Virginia or Thomas? I had to read Virginia for my Masters. Dreadful stuff. Anyway, I am starting a website for authors of readable literary fiction, the kind of stuff that has life and story and style to it, culled with care from the online slush piles.
My response to Bransford was this:
Literary Agent Nathan Bransford, poses the the question, “Is Literary fiction losing its place in the culture? In my experience, literary fiction has always struggled in a pulp fiction world. So news of its demise, as the humorist said, has often been greatly exaggerated. As Bransford correctly notes, there has been such talk before, though not that long ago in his mind, and he wonders if it’s really and truly dead. I would argue that it isn’t dead, and that Bransford is merely looking for it in all the obvious places, but not in the last places one would look, which is always where one finds things. Do you have a slush pile, Mr. Bransford? If you do, I would suggest you read through it, as you’re bound to find a few gems in there among all the genre gravel. I’m being tongue in cheek, of course, though I read nothing but literary fiction and I’m always able to find a good book by taking a lesson from the classics I’ve read. What the classics have in common is:
Number one, readability; the stories themselves are approachable to the ordinary reader. Classic writers tend to display their mastery of language by writing stylish, communicative prose. What they don’t write is obscurantist stuff which displays a surface profundity that frequently conceals a hollow core, the sort of book one pretends to get because it wouldn’t be hip to admit that you don’t. The writers of such are akin to the tailors in The Emperor’s New Clothes. Does Don DeLillo come to mind?
Number two; characters that readers know personally in their everyday lives, unlike the digital avatars we encounter in… Don DeLillo. Finally, for those that dig, they do have a base of ideas, which often come across subconsciously even to the less astute reader, who finds himself influenced without quite knowing why or how.
So before posing the question, is literary fiction irrelevant, I’d suggest Mr. Bransford peruse that stack of unread manuscripts or the shops for something other than best sellers.
TSC,
I’m not sure which Woolf the commenter meant. I saw the comment on a post on the guardian book blog and I thought it was a perfect example of the prevailing attitude towards literary fiction.
Your website sounds like a great idea. Part of the problem is the perception of literary fiction as unreadable and needlessly complicated. I think readers who are leery of literary fiction would gravitate towards a site like that. I look forward to it.
I do believe Nathan is on to something when he wonders if literary fiction is dying. Readers like you (and other bloggers and devotees of literary fiction) and I will always be able to find great literary fiction to read and it will mean much to us. But we are a very small percentage of the population and to the majority, literary fiction is just more elitist mumbo jumbo.
We’re better than that.
I knw nthng abt wrtr strct bt is there a wy to mke ingrdts of Literary Fiction diff, if indeed thse bks r dying out? (ok I tried to be creative in this…) I wonder if Literary fiction could appear different than it does now, but still qualify as Literary fiction and for the purpose of making it more compete without selling its soul?
That is the great question isn’t it? Can we draw in a wider readership without dumbing it down? I don’t know what the answer is but I think we should attempt it.
Thanks for stopping by.
Great post. I love your ideas. Now, if only we can get you in charge of, well, everything.
I think literary fiction has always been relevant — people just don’t realize how much it speaks to them until an old novel is remade into a major motion picture — or Oprah picks it for her book club. You’re never going to get people to stop reading pap, just like you’re never going to get people to stop listening to pop music or watching daytime TV. Your first comment, by T., is right on the money here.
The concept of organizing really resonates with me. The mob has great power. I think of organizations like Emerging Writers Network (its purpose is “to develop a community of emerging writers, established writers deserving of wider recognition, and readers of literary writing, in order to develop as large an audience as possible for those writers”), which is steadily gaining notoriety. There are literally hundreds of great small presses putting out quality literary fiction, but it’s all piecemeal and small potatoes.
Honestly, though, I have a feeling that every few generations, those who value great art take up the lament that high culture is in decline — yet she persists. Thank God.
PS. Your site looks great! Very sleek. Very sexy.
Jess,
Why thank you for your kind words :)
There is that awesome sales jump every novel experiences when a movie interpretation comes out. The hope is that the sales jump translates to high visibility for other literary works (same deal with Oprah). I would love it if literary fiction could stand on its own as a medium and not depend on other mediums and celebrities for visibility.
The EWN looks awesome (bookmarked, thanks). I love that mission statement and I think that’s exactly what we need right now. Together we can really put out a strong message telling consumers to check out literary fiction again. We just have to have the relevant stories ready for them. Author co-ops are another way we can organize although most of the co-ops are still too tiny to wield significant influence.
You’re absolutely right about the recurring lament. I wonder about the recurrence though? Is it because literary fiction has been in a steady decline or because it has always been on the fringe (and we’ve never liked that)?
This – excessive linguistic masturbation – cracked me up. Very, very true.
The other point you raised, about Classics being taught in class, is pretty valid. I’m 20 now, so my school years aren’t too far behind me – I remember that NO ONE enjoyed any of our assigned books (nor did anyone make it further than half way), and herein lies the problem. We should provide students with literature, sure, but something perhaps more modern and enjoyable to read than dusty classics. The positive feelings would cause them to explore more literary fiction in the future, rather than being scared off by school experiences.
Ilona,
Ha! That line cracked me up too.
I was thinking along those lines at first too but T’s comment has given me some pause. We might be shooting ourselves in the foot if we switch out the classics for modern works in the hope that young un’s dig (proof that I am now old and uncool) it. I say this because young’uns move from one cool/hot thing t the next pretty rapidly and we would never be able to switch out their reading lists fast enough to keep up.
This one’s a toughie.
Maybe we don’t have to be up to the minute (i.e. vampire vomit), but something a little more relevant than Great Expectations? Perhaps Rebecca? It’s a pleasure to read (writing style), has an arresting plot, and plenty of assignment-worthy symbolism. It seemed like our school was allergic to providing any books that provided an ounce of enjoyment.
Actually, one book we all liked was The Crucible. We could act it out in class, and it was shocking how gossip and the such created witch hunts – something that teens had definitely experienced, although to a much lesser scale.
Maybe not all school’s are like ours. But it’s important, as T said, to reframe classics (kind of like what our teacher did with The Crucible), and perhaps do a bit more modern stuff (like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time).
I confess to having missed those two (Rebecca and The Crucible) in my reading. I looked them both up and they sound like excellent choices (shoot I want to read Rebecca ASAP). I’m a big fan of 1984 although I don’t know if it’s on many syllabi already (or how the students would take to it). You’ve given me an idea for a post on this (syllabus suggestions anyone?), danke.
It’s ironic that we read tons of Shakespeare and the like in high school in Nigeria and here I am blathering on about reading more modern work.
Hi, Mayowa. I think the move away from literary fiction is part of a broader societal movement towards the quick fix in an environment where an unprecedented quantity of information is available at the click of a mouse. Ironically this is ferile ground for literary dissection. My belief is that the key to making literary fiction a commercial prospect again is to reinstate an emotional connection; I think there’s a notion that more cerebral fiction doesn’t really deal in emotion, when in actuality it does so to a deeper level than more populist fiction tends to.
Great point sir.
It’s back to that whole perception thing again. We really need to do some collective branding and outreach to readers so that they get an idea of what literary fiction has to offer (all the thrills and emotions they find in other genres, but better). We also need to step up to make sure that is true.
Thanks for stopping by.
Excellent post! I like the idea of literary writers who kick your ass and sleep with your wife.
I find that most people don’t enjoy reading literature–they enjoy reading something that feels like a movie. They need nonstop action and adventure and then a nice, tidy conclusion. People don’t like to chew on words and think about allusions. Maybe they (as a collective) never really did or maybe the world is just a different place moving at a different pace with more distractions now.
I have to admit though that if literary fiction as a genre gains in popularity, it will be harder to quickly pinpoint the quality people when you’re having an introductory conversation. :-)
Ha! I hadn’t thought about that at all. We won’t be able to tell who the cool folks on the subway are either (although ebooks are making that a moot point too) lol.
I agree about people wanting flashy vanilla that is easy to digest. I think they can be lured towards deeper and more insightful waters though. Movies like Inception and The Dark Night offer a lot of the whiz bang pop they like and yet they cover deeper themes.
Thanks for stopping by!
I was one of those rare students that never really had a problem with literary fiction. I would read the material and even enjoy it. There is a definite cultural trend in dumbing down writing, and this is perceived as ‘OK’ in today’s society.
I don’t know, but it seems like it’s the literary agents and publishing houses that have made it like this. I know it’s a money-making business and they have to stick by what sells, but when I look at bookshops and their shelves these days, I see a lot of crap. Can there really be a demand for all this crap?