There's a large number of lit snobs who will declaim to the skies that even published authors who write in popular genres, such as fantasy, romance, western, aren't *real* writers, that unless the book is placed in stores in that shelf ambiguously labeled "Fiction", it's mere popular entertainment, not literature--and is therefore a lesser product.
Oh god, I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had that argument – about the Harry Potter books, of course – with people from all sorts of backgrounds. Lit snobs, of course; but even a common reader will often consider such genre writing to be 'not literature', something that I find mind-boggling.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-10-15 11:25 am (UTC)Oh god, I can't begin to tell you how many times I've had that argument – about the Harry Potter books, of course – with people from all sorts of backgrounds. Lit snobs, of course; but even a common reader will often consider such genre writing to be 'not literature', something that I find mind-boggling.
Swatkat