So I’ve been pretty good at keeping out of the newest tired, dead-horse version of “fun books, especially those by women, mark the end of Western civilization” kerfuffle. What is there to say on the detractors’ end that hasn’t been said over and over since Daniel Defoe was slamming Aphra Behn? Has civilization been steadily crumbling since then? Has the state of the novel? (Hope not,s icne it was just invented around that time!)
It’s a stalemate, folks. You know that scene in Twelve Angry Men where the racist just starts ranting away and instead of attempting to argue logically with him anymore, all the other jurors realize he’s a brick wall of idiocy and just walk away? That’s how I feel. There’s no point in trying to respond logically to people who honestly believe that the text of Hamlet is somehow tainted by being on the same shelf as the text of Shopaholic, or that there is an automatic devaluation of any book encased in a cover reflecting an unsaturated orange hue of 620 nm (i.e., “pink”).
But then I read Bookseller’s Chick’s well-reasoned defense, and I just want to say: right on, my friend! Telling an adult reader that she is incapable of making good decisions about her reading choices is tantamount to saying that if candy is available on the shelves at my local Giant, I won’t buy Brussels sprouts. Hey, guess what? I’m a grown up. I know the difference between vegetables and chocolate. I don’t need them to be on separate aisles or color coded for me to be able to tell, either. I also happen to love vegetables and I find it laughable that you assume, because you see me with a Snickers bar, that I don’t eat vegetables too. I happen to love vegetables, especially Brussels sprouts.
I was a Literature major at Yale. I can shoot my mouth off about the Western Canon enough to satisfy even the snobbiest of lit snobs. At one point, my friends and I estimated that we read between four and ten thousand pages of literature for every class. (The Russian Novel class was a particular bear, though Women and the Rise of the Novel was no slouch in terms of doorstoppers.) That means that over the course of my college career, I probably read about 200,000 pages worth of literary classics. Two. Hundred. Thousand. And that’s not including the books I read in high school, in childhood, and the classics I’ve read for fun. (Yes, I read all kinds of books for fun.)
Thanks for your concern, but I think I’m good, really.
15 Comments
February 14, 2007 at 1:27 pm
You tell ‘em! I have books of all genres, and they all seem to get along fine – both on the shelf and in my brain. Although, I don’t think the average person reads much literature, which is too sad IMO, you really can’t blame the other genres. Sheesh. You gave a perfect analogy. Thanks, Diana
February 14, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Fortunately I’m just a beach bum who doesn’t give a flip about what others might think of my reading preferences. I read for ME and no one else and if someone tried to pull book snobbery on me, I’d laugh in their face.
I do care about what other people are reading… only because I want recommendations of titles to add to my TBR pile. I don’t care if it’s Thomas Hardy or Jaci Burton… just tell me the story rocked and I’m out to buy it.
February 14, 2007 at 3:17 pm
*clap*clap*clap*
February 14, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Wow. I just read the Bookseller Chick’s post.
If anything could ever promote women to join the ranks of informed feminists, that article would do the job.
Nothing p*sses me off more than being brushed off as unimportant or invaluable because of my sex or reading preferences.
Well, lots of things p*ss me off, but that one is right up there!
February 14, 2007 at 4:05 pm
Thanks, Diana! I happen to love brussel sprouts too (especially when grilled with a little garlic-y olive oil), and it was really beginning to bother me that people were pigeon-holing readers like that. I have nothing against people who love to read only literature–like every thing else out there it has the good, the bad, and the ugly–but it frustrates me to no end when “Lit” readers look down upon others. (Conversely I’m just as frustrated when straight genre readers use the snob defense when someone is actually trying to look at difficiencies in a book or body of work. Snobbishness works both ways.) Thanks for getting the point some of the responders were missing!
February 14, 2007 at 4:15 pm
The ‘Classic Literature’ we read today was the ‘COMMERCIAL’ literature of its time.
So, in 200 years, if you didn’t sell well, no one will remember you, regardless of how ‘well’ it was written. Because no one read it.
Sorry, but Dan Brown is going to be considered literature.
February 14, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Diana, I was going to email you about a new book I’ve just started to read, but since this is a book post today I’ll pass it on to everyone else, too.
It’s “Blind Submission” by Debra Ginsberg. The heroine – who has a bit of Amy in her – goes to work for a high-powered literary agent. Agent is a bitch on wheels, but apparently knows how to get the job done; Angel (the heroine) has a good sense of what kind of writing works and what doesn’t, though she leaves the writing profession itself to her boyfriend. Her handling of the slush pile the first day on the job reminds me of some of your posts, Diana.
I probably shouldn’t be recommending it until I finish it, but I only started it this morning and found myself comparing Angel with Amy and Ms. Ginsberg’s bright, sassy style with that of a certain other favorite author of mine, so I’m going out on a limb and suggesting it as a Good Read for those interested in the book-making business.
(I just hope the rest of the book is as good as the first 40 pages, or I may wind up with egg on my face….)
February 14, 2007 at 7:26 pm
One of the things I hate most about book snobishness is when people make uninformed comments. If you want to denigrate chick lit, at least read it first – at least make informed arguments. The type of book Dowd described as chick lit looked nothing like the hundreds of chick lit books I’ve read since the sub genre spun off and became so big.
For goodness sake – Emily Giffin’s book Baby Proof is about a married woman trying to decide if she wanted to have children or not. That is not really an “all fluff and no substance” topic. Plus it is a topic that tons of women face! Grr.
Or, if you want to make uniformed arguments, be up front that you have no actual experience with what you’re talking about.
And I was just in a bookstore and purposefully looked for the pink covers and didn’t see that many. Cause we all know that blue is the new pink and yellow is the new blue when it comes to chick lit
Deep, cleansing breaths.
February 14, 2007 at 8:04 pm
Sigh. Yes. To all of this, including the comments.
Don’t people have enough to do without worrying about what the rest of us are reading? Go get a pet or something.
February 14, 2007 at 8:10 pm
I think shelving “literary” works with “commercial fiction” is likely to generate interest in the literary books that many shoppers would never even see if they were shelved separately. Makes those books less intimidating, and might actually encourage a casual shopped to read the back cover and buy the book. I’ve picked up a few myself that way — books I either always meant to read, or ones I read long ago and decided to revisit, but wouldn’t have thought to go to the “literary” section of the bookstore to seek them out.
February 14, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Tell it sister.
February 14, 2007 at 8:37 pm
LOLOLOL!
*standing up applauding wildly*
February 15, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Best Brussels sprouts recipe EVAH!
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon And Herbs
Ingredients:
2 lbs. fresh Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved, or quartered if large
kosher salt
4 slices bacon, diced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2-cup chopped flat leaf parsley
freshly ground black pepper
Instructions:
Bring salted water to a boil in a medium saucepan, add Brussels sprouts and boil uncovered until just tender.
Drain in a colander and set aside.
In a large heavy skillet, cook bacon until crisp and fat is rendered.
Remove bacon pieces with a slotted spoon and pour off all but a tablespoon of fat.
Add garlic and cook, stirring, over medium high until garlic is softened and just beginning to brown, about three minutes.
Add Brussels sprouts and cook, stirring, until they are heated through. Stir in parsley and season with additional salt and black pepper. Serve immediately.
February 15, 2007 at 7:53 pm
You said it. I had a similar reaction earlier to all the people decrying Harry Potter for similar reasons. The question ran, why would kids read this when we had so many children’s classics like Narnia, or E. Nesbit, or Phillip Pullman’s work available. And I wanted to shake them and go, “But I’ve READ them all already.” (Not that I won’t read ‘em again.)
February 17, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Tangentially related story…
SETUP: I was in Italy this summer on a shoestring budget, so I was in a hostel. These two forty-something women from the UK were also in my room.
I finished Memoirs of a Geisha and let them have it so I didn’t have to tote it around Europe.
WOMAN A: Oh, I’d love to read this. Have you read Sue Monk Kidd? (brandishes a book)
ME: Yes. I read that over the summer.
WOMAN B: Ooh, I’ll have to get a list of your favorite books. You know, we have a friend who actually writes books.
ME: Really? Is she published?
WOMAN A: Lots, but I haven’t read any. She writes for Harlequin Mills and Boone. (said in same tone as, “she gave my brother syphilis”)
WOMAN B: I haven’t read them either. She writes for the masses. (said with eye-rolls) They’re not books of SUBSTANCE.
ME (in my head, because I was too dumbfounded, as a non-literary writer for the “people”, to speak out loud): And you call yourself FRIENDS with this woman? Criminy!!!