If Ernest Hemingway were alive today and publishing his first Novel at the infancy of the 21st century, would anyone care? Id have to say, probably not. This is of course, unfortunate. Whether you like his work or consider it overly macho and sexist, there is one undeniable fact: Hemingway redefined the way early 20th century American Literature was written. In his simple, yet amazingly realistic style, he was able to relate more to the common man, rather than appealing to ultra-elite society as the countless Victorian authors did before him. Not to say he was the first to write about average everyday people, but it was the way he wrote his Fiction that made the average everyday people want to read it. By scrapping the pretentious Victorian-style narrative and sticking to the actual guts of the story, his < a href='http://www.amazon.com/rss/tag/Novel/new?tag=day2soft-20'title= 'Novel: Newly tagged products at Amazon.com' target='_blank' style='font-size: large'>Novels became the everymans Novels, and this is what made him an international superstar in his day.
But today this would not be enough to get old Ernie that kind of attention. In fact, it may not even be enough to get him published. Today it takes a brand-able or franchise-able idea that has the potential to branch out into spin-off products and mega-movie deals to garner that kind of worldwide attention from a Novel. Examples include The Da Vinci Code and the Harry P otter series. They have that mega-million dollar potential that drives authors to the top of the bestseller lists for months at a time. But why is it that the bestseller lists are so often dominated by Genre Novels? What happened to the Literary Novels that used to rule the book world?
I dont want to offend anyone here, but I would like to take one moment to explain the difference between Literary Fiction and Genre Fiction (Genre meaning Mystery, Sci-Fi, Romance, etc.) Many people actually have no idea that there is a difference. In fact, when someone asked me once what Genre I wrote in, I said, I dont write in a Genre. I write Lite rary Fiction. They laughed and said, Isnt all Fiction Literary? Well maybe they were confusing the word Literary with Literature, but at any rate I will now explain the difference for those of you who dont know. I do want to say upfront that I am in no way putting down Genre Fiction, since it too has its merits and value. And many times Genre Fiction may even take on some aspects of Literary, and vice versa. However, the focus here is on whether or not Literary Fiction has completely fallen off the general publics proverbial radar screen . . . So, I continue.
The main difference between Genre and Literary Fiction is one thing: conflict. Conflict is that all-important element in Fiction, so important that without it you have no story to tell. Conflict is the problem the characters must solve, the obstacle they must overcome, the foe they must defeat, etc. And, there are two types of conflict: External and Internal. External is the type of conflict utilized by Genre writers. For example, in a murder mystery the conflict would be the murder that the detective is trying to solve. In science Fiction it might be that the alien hoards have just landed in Jersey and the Air Force is faced with destroying them. Whatever it is, in Genre, the conflict is always external, i.e. aliens are an external force the Air Force pilots must defeat, the murder is an external problem the detective must solve. So the conflict depends more on these external forces, rather than the characters.
In Literary Fiction, the conflict is much different, its internal, which means it is character driven. It focuses less on the external forces the characters must overcome, and more on the internal forces the characters must face within themselves. For example, it may be a story about a man who has cheated on his wife and his conflict is whether or not he should tell her. Or (and this is where the mixing of Genre and Literary comes in) the alien hoards have land ed in Jersey, once again, and the Air Force pilots must decide if they believe it morally correct to blow them to kingdom come. Thats the beauty of Literary Fiction, there is a much deeper revealing of the characters in that it explores what we as human beings would do in these situations, rather than what an idealized character may do. Like us all, they are not purely black or white. They are instead gray characters, sharing both good and bad qualities. This is what Literary Fiction does; it explores the true nature of, well, human nature.
So, is Literary Fiction falling through the cracks of mainstream society? If so its not because it isnt being written. On the contrary, there are plenty of contemporary Literary writers in America today who are all worth the accolades and awards they have received. But have you ever heard of Marilynne Robinson or Jeffrey Eugenides, two fairly recent and award winning Literary Novelists? You may have, but how about Richard Bausch? He was once called one of our greatest short story writers whose Literary stories deserve inclusion among the best American stories of the past 20 years. It could be said that Bausch is near the top of the modern Literary strata as far as talent goes, but have you ever heard of him? Is his name as recognizable as Dan Brown or J.K. Rowling? Indeed, not. So why is that? In 2004, Genre Fiction made up about 75% of all Fiction sold, while general Fiction made up about 25% (this is according to Romance Writers of America, Inc., who of course noted that the Genre of Romance had the largest share at over 33%).
In general, sales for all Books have been declining in recent years. This may be attributed to many factors, one in particular I like to call, the MTV factor. I mean, why waste your time reading a book about twenty-year-olds having sex in a hot tub when you can watch it on cable television, right? MTV, however, is not the cause of this problem, but just another symptom of what has been coined by the talking head as, the dumbing down of America. If this phenomenon exists it is something we must all live with, but is it the reason less Literary Novels are being read today? After all, it doesnt take a genius to enjoy Literary Fiction. I enjoy Literary Fiction, and I am certainly no genius. So could it be the publishers? Are they to blame for the slow demise of this once sought-after art form? Well, they certainly contribute to it, since a book about a teenage wizard does mean a bigger profit margin than say, a Novel about a dieing preacher writing an account of his life for his seven-year-old son (Gilead, Marilynne Robinson). But whether or not the mega-conglomerate publishers bare the bulk of the responsibility for the impending death of Literary Fiction is unclear. What does seem to be painfully clear is, whatever the reason, Literary Fiction is no longer craved and devoured by the masses as it once was. In fact, most Americans will only read Literary Fiction in grade school. But what turns out to be an even scarier statistic is that after high school, the majority of them will never pick up a book, of any kind, for the rest of their natural lives; a sad sign that we are doomed as a Literary society. So I suppose in the end, we should be happy that those that do read are reading at all, no matter what kind of Fiction it is.
2005 by David Tucholski
This article comes with reprint rights prov iding no changes are made and the resource box below accompanies it.
David Tucholski is the author of the Novel, The Good I Stand On (an iUniverse Editors Choice pick), available at Amazon, as well as several other works that can be found on his website: http://www.davidtucholski.com
Visit http://www.thegoodistandon.com for more about his debut Novel.
Author:: David Tucholski
Keywords:: Literary, Fiction, Classics, Genre, Books, Novels , Literature, Bestsellers, Novel
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