Point is if we lose humanities and its highest expressions, we lose the historical and progressive enlightment how it came for societies more and more complex, in that reverting to simpler, mechanical, narrower, fundamentally brutal models. Less Facebook, then, more sophisticated novels, even the opportunity to choose them when we need them would be good enough.
Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
11–20 of 47 posts
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#12I don't know what "literary fiction" is, exactly. I suspect that, for the most part, it's been a status symbol. Back in the day, one needed copies of the latest stuff on tables and shelves. But on Facebook, one can fake it, based on Goodreads etc. No dead trees needed.
Around one in five, one in four books were bought with no intention of reading. On one hand that's a lot of faking, on on other, the other three fourths is much more and not fake. (Source: Editors I knew, over alcoholic beverages.) EDIT: "Were", not "are", because I've lost touch in the past years and don't know how it is nowadays. Sales have dropped, the audience may have too. (Still see gorgeous women in the booksh…
I have no idea how many books are bought just for show, but why would being an editor provide you with insight into the numbers? How could they know?
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#13I have understood some drop in fiction book sales to be caused by the wind-up of the Harry Potter series in 2007. A 2011 article from The Guardian (Datablog section, author uncredited) linked to this spreadsheet of Harry Potter book sales numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C6QriM1aMBd5Ab6Tn7hn... Is Rowling's Potter part of Literary Fiction? The report states "We therefore leave the definition of what l…
"Literary fiction" is a category used in the publishing world to contrast "genre fiction". A publisher would consider Harry Potter genre fiction of some kind, whether in fantasy or young adult. I think it would be quite strange if it were included in the survey.
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#14I have understood some drop in fiction book sales to be caused by the wind-up of the Harry Potter series in 2007. A 2011 article from The Guardian (Datablog section, author uncredited) linked to this spreadsheet of Harry Potter book sales numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C6QriM1aMBd5Ab6Tn7hn... Is Rowling's Potter part of Literary Fiction? The report states "We therefore leave the definition of what l…
Literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction. Literary fiction consists of pointless books about the middle class, by the middle class; genre fiction is everything else.
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you consider literary fiction "navel-gazing" and why is SF that important? As a side note, one of the books they give as an example is The Time Traveller's Wife , which involves "a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably", which certainly sounds like an SF-y premise.
There's a strong status separation between SF and literary fiction. If you get someone to read SF that has literary merit, they'll try to tell you afterwards that it wasn't SF.
That's not entirely true. The "The Three Body Problem" trilogy had a lot of literature tone and it's considered one of the best SF works ever. Obviously not for that reason alone but what I'm saying is that nobody seemed to bother by the prose as long as the science part was solid and the fiction original.
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#16I have understood some drop in fiction book sales to be caused by the wind-up of the Harry Potter series in 2007. A 2011 article from The Guardian (Datablog section, author uncredited) linked to this spreadsheet of Harry Potter book sales numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C6QriM1aMBd5Ab6Tn7hn... Is Rowling's Potter part of Literary Fiction? The report states "We therefore leave the definition of what l…
Literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction. Literary fiction consists of pointless books about the middle class, by the middle class; genre fiction is everything else.
Hey, let's be fair. Sometimes they're resentful books about the upper class, by the middle class.
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#17I have understood some drop in fiction book sales to be caused by the wind-up of the Harry Potter series in 2007. A 2011 article from The Guardian (Datablog section, author uncredited) linked to this spreadsheet of Harry Potter book sales numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C6QriM1aMBd5Ab6Tn7hn... Is Rowling's Potter part of Literary Fiction? The report states "We therefore leave the definition of what l…
Literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction. Literary fiction consists of pointless books about the middle class, by the middle class; genre fiction is everything else.
Here's a quote from a bestselling non-fiction work, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Literary fiction as opposed to genre fiction. Literary fiction consists of pointless books about the middle class, by the middle class; genre fiction is everything else.
Here's a quote from a bestselling non-fiction work, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
I'm not sure that the Jubilee Bible was best selling.
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#19I don't know what "literary fiction" is, exactly. I suspect that, for the most part, it's been a status symbol. Back in the day, one needed copies of the latest stuff on tables and shelves. But on Facebook, one can fake it, based on Goodreads etc. No dead trees needed.
Around one in five, one in four books were bought with no intention of reading. On one hand that's a lot of faking, on on other, the other three fourths is much more and not fake. (Source: Editors I knew, over alcoholic beverages.) EDIT: "Were", not "are", because I've lost touch in the past years and don't know how it is nowadays. Sales have dropped, the audience may have too. (Still see gorgeous women in the booksh…
What if I bought a book with the intention of reading it, but with no established reading schedule or deadline to finish?
Re: Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you consider literary fiction "navel-gazing" and why is SF that important? As a side note, one of the books they give as an example is The Time Traveller's Wife , which involves "a man with a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel unpredictably", which certainly sounds like an SF-y premise.
There's a strong status separation between SF and literary fiction. If you get someone to read SF that has literary merit, they'll try to tell you afterwards that it wasn't SF.
That's quite true. My favorite SF author, Gene Wolfe, is sometimes found in the Literature section in bookstores.
On the other hand, 99% of SF does not have much literary merit, even the well regarded stuff, so if you're interested in the cross-section, Literature might be the more reasonable department to file it under.