Tumblr crosspost (4 March 2023)

[anghraine]

Huh, I see a lot of lit-fic fans insisting that the stereotype of lit-fic as "college prof/writer having affairs and people being miserable in a stylistic way" is just a defensive genre fan take that took off.

I wouldn't know, myself, because nearly all my literary reading these days is in the periods I study, ending at around 1815. But my best friend is getting an MFA in creative writing and damn if every lit piece he gets assigned isn't "people being miserable in a stylistic way, especially writers having affairs."

This may not be representative of modern lit fic as a whole! Like I said, I wouldn't know. But the idea that the stereotype is completely manufactured by defensive genre fans seems ... maybe not quite fair.

(The ricochet from 'there's no bias against genre writers or fans any more, you just like feeling persecuted' to 'you're inventing unfair stereotypes of lit-fic because you don't want to challenge yourself with important deep things instead of the trash you read' is ... hmm, certainly an intriguing kind of whiplash.)

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

Lol. Yes, there are also the new and improved litfic problems to add to the "writers having stylistic affairs" problem!

Ironically, I'm reading a very intriguing "stylistic affair" novel right now from the '60s -- Han Suyin's Winter Love. Perhaps a more nuanced critique that would satisfy both parties in this discourse of extremes would be "many, many very good authors have perhaps relieved today's MFAs of having to write this same novel again" :)

[anghraine]

Heh, well, I don't actually object to people writing stylistic affair (or more broadly, stylistic misery) novels if that's what moves them! My issue is with the sneering at people who don't care for that kind of thing not only for not liking it, but for thinking it's a trope at all. It's one thing to be "the generalizations about adult literary fiction are way too sweeping and dismissive to be fair," but there's a rather gross mind game quality IMO to the suggestion that non-litfic fans are just making the trope up because they don't want to challenge themselves or whatever.