[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 206 KB, 700x525, acc.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
11038158 No.11038158 [Reply] [Original]

What is the line between literary fiction and genre fiction? I'm not here to claim, "hurr durr there is no line." But I'm asking, where exactly does one draw the distinction?

>> No.11038878

>>11038158
There is no clear line. Some might say something like Book of the New Sun, Ursula K. Le Guin, or Phillip K. Dick has transcended genre but others would disagree and say it is impossible for science fiction or fantasy to be literary.

Personally, I think literary fiction relies less on plot and more on things like character development or aesthetics.

>> No.11038890

When someone you don't like sells more books than you, they're writing genre fiction

>> No.11038898

>>11038890
kek

>> No.11038910

Good question I have studied but still don't understand the nuances of, in terms of what others mean by the distinction (though I think I can make a distinction pretty fast).

What is IJ, as a thought experiment? I'm sure everyone would say literary fiction, as would I, but there are science fiction elements and it is set in the future. Science fiction writers who are actually good writers are rare but some seem to think anything that takes place in the future can't be literary fiction.

>> No.11038913

>>11038158
when the conventions of the type no longer impede upon the Geist from breakin forth from its inchoate/embryonic state and the light of the author’s soul permeates the logic and play of the work, when there is presence of liberty, imagination and wisdom, you are partaking in art, high culture, when any of these 3 is absent, a degraded and machinic body is present, and you could rightfully apply to it some type of taxonomic seal, like genre fiction or more specifically mcliterature, like Clancy novels. Philip K Dick is literature, The Count of Monte Cristo is literature, The Book of the New Sun is literature, however Andromeda Strain, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Redwall are genre fiction.

I hope this is helpful to you OP