StoryDevs

Problems with “Literary Fiction”

While working on the search options for writers and editors I came to a few conclusions which interest me and which might be controversial. Feedback is very welcome.

1. “Literary” is a value judgement. I can’t find a definition of it that doesn’t say something to the effect of “literary works are those which have merit”. Some definitions say literary works are concerned with “the human condition” but that seems like an unconvincing way to differentiate “literary” works from “genre” works. Are we supposed to believe genre works are not concerned with the human condition? It seems obvious that genre works regularly—if not unavoidably—reflect on that, just with variable levels of skill.

2. Literature and genre are orthogonal. This naturally follows the last point. If “literature” basically means “good writing” there’s no reason genre works can’t be genre and good writing (AKA literature) simultaneously.

3. “Literary” is a bad search option. Below is a picture of how the search options for writers look at the moment (it’s similar for editors):

But what do we actually want to turn up in a search for “literary” writers? Serious writers? Skilled writers? Empathetic writers? Remember that people will be filling out their own profiles. What writer doesn’t think they’re serious, skilled, or empathetic? I think in practice “literary” would just become a vanity label.

When “literary” and “genre” are presented together as above it’s coded language for “good” and “bad”. I don’t think it’s right—for reasons of ethics and productivity—for StoryDevs (i.e. me!) to be, or to allow for, segregating writers into “good” and “bad” categories, even if it were practical to do so (which it isn’t). I think the decision of whether or not writing is good or bad is up to the person searching, not the people creating their profiles, nor the site hosting the profiles.

Instead, I think the options should look something like this:

Writers are not required to list themselves under “genre”, “technical”, or “experimental”, nor are those searching required to choose one of these options. I’ve tried to make this obvious by changing “Experience” to “Special Experience” — these options don’t necessarily cover all types of writing expertise, but they’re there for when you want someone with those specific skills.

So those are my thoughts about “literary” as an option. I’m not particularly well-read, nor am I anywhere near as familiar with writing as I am with other skills such as art. Let me know what you think about this.

Oh, and one last thing: eventually the search will allow you to negate options. That is, you’ll be able to say, “show me all the writers not listed under ‘genre’, ‘technical’, or ‘experimental’”. Anyway, that’s it, thanks for reading!

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