{"id":4344,"date":"2018-07-01T07:18:59","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T13:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/?p=4344"},"modified":"2023-07-07T07:41:37","modified_gmt":"2023-07-07T13:41:37","slug":"what-is-literary-fiction-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/01\/what-is-literary-fiction-really\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Literary Fiction Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;text-align: center;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/dot.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Email\",\"Print\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"big\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"bxwretlind\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"What%20is%20Literary%20Fiction%20Really%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When I was wee lad (well, thirty-something), I had this idea I would be the next great horror writer. I did all things horror: wrote short stories, worked on novels, edited a horror magazine, read works by other horror authors, attempted to buy my way into horror conventions, collected horror action figures (they\u2019re not dolls!), etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was pretty good at getting involved in the horror scene. I even accepted as normal the massive hubris of some well-known horror writers out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, while doing all the above, I found something in my writing: it\u2019s not all horror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This revelation in itself might not be cause for alarm. After all, if a piece of work is fantasy or speculative fiction, there\u2019s no reason to go crying about things to your mom, is there? You can still write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I didn\u2019t think this way, of course. I didn\u2019t go crying to my mom, but I did find myself in a bit of a depression. I was supposed to be the next Stephen King, the next Clive Barker, the next (insert your favorite horror author here). I was going to write and write until my fingers bled and then I was going to wear bandages and write more until I had written the penultimate horror novel that was sure to be the first blood-filled slasher to win the Pulitzer prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What happened, however, was the complete opposite: <em>I stopped writing altogether<\/em>. I left one novel in the middle and thought I would never look back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I spent a while ruminating about my failure and then a good solid year evaluating what went wrong. I was sure I was meant to write horror. After all, the first story I ever wrote when I was 7 years old was horror. But if that was the case, how come all the story lines I could come up with were not horror-ific? I supposed I could just stick in a big, green monster to eat people, but that wouldn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It was odd. How could I go on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn\u2019t until I accepted I wasn\u2019t a horror writer but a <em>fiction<\/em> writer that my writing life made a drastic 180\u00b0 turn. That was me: a fiction writer, living outside of one genre and willing to read anything and write anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Except romance. But I digress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since that revelation (if you could call it that&#8230;I mean, there weren\u2019t any singing angels or anything), I\u2019ve written a lot. I\u2019ve also published a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first novel to come out and the first to be re-released by a publishing house was that one novel I abandoned years ago. I asked myself what horror was and decided it wasn\u2019t about big, green monsters eating people (although that\u2019s pretty neat); rather, horror was about making the reader uncomfortable. <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/44B9HJQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Castles<\/em> <\/a>is just that: a novel intended to make a reader squirm while debating character motivation. Is there really some paranormal type activity going on or is the character delusional? Can it be both or neither?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/44B9HJQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Castles<\/a> <\/em>is actually the only horror novel I have ever written, and looking at my list of future projects, the only one that will be in my bibliography for a long time. I don\u2019t actually call it horror, though; to me, it\u2019s <em>literary<\/em> horror or just plain Literary Fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whoa. Stop. Did I just say I think <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/44B9HJQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Castles<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is Literary Fiction?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If that&#8217;s the case, I have never written a horror novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/43eQAUU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first novel I actually wrote<\/a> (which is not the first novel to come out) was not horror. I had one reader comment that <em><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/43eQAUU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Difficult Mirrors<\/a><\/em>\u00a0falls into the magical realism category. Magical realism was not something I had considered in my \u201chorror writing\u201d days, but when I look back on my collection of those writings (<a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3XI0yx1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Regarding Dead Things on the Side of the Road<\/em><\/a>), I find that while I had written\u00a0several stories that might be considered horror, most fall into the surrealist or magical realist categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/the-sketches-from-the-spanish-mustang\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Sketches from the Spanish Mustang<\/em><\/a> is comprised of 7 separate character sketches set in and revolving around a fictional casino in the town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. None of those sketches are horror. Rather, they\u2019re spread across a broad spectrum of genres, from that oddly familiar magical realism to the domestic (or family drama) to thriller to tragic romance. (See? I can write a romance!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My latest project is a blend of genres such as thriller, political drama and science fiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unless I add in a big, green monster to eat people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then I wouldn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Neither would you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What I&#8217;m saying, though, is this: Literary Fiction, which I would put almost all of my writing into, is <em>not<\/em> a genre. Literary Fiction is <em>fiction<\/em> and if you stay away from it, you&#8217;ll be missing out on quite a bit. Were it not for that label, applied in the 1960s to things that didn&#8217;t have a particular place and were meant to be &#8220;serious&#8221; and &#8220;lasting&#8221; fiction, we would probably read a bit more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I once asked a few people what they thought of when they heard the term &#8220;literary fiction.&#8221; The responses I received ranged from \u201cVladimir Nabokov\u201d to \u201cclassics, Dickens, Bronte\u201d to \u201cold stuff.\u201d There&#8217;s a whole book of articles that could be written debunking the notion that Literary Fiction is just plotless words jotted down for the sake of being fancy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Allow me then to propose my own definition of Literary Fiction: A kaleidoscopic of work that includes elements of romance, thriller, horror, science fiction, mystery, the American Western, etc. Literary Fiction is cross-genre. Literary Fiction is fiction, and we all need to stop lumping some of the best work out there into this category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I walked into a Barnes &amp; Noble the other day and looked for the &#8220;Literary Fiction&#8221; shelf. You know what? I couldn&#8217;t find it. It&#8217;s called &#8220;Fiction &amp; Literature&#8221; and you&#8217;ll find anything from Nabakov to Dickens to James Rollins to Douglas Preston to Stephen King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It makes sense, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now we just need to get rid of that &#8220;Literary Fiction&#8221; shelf on Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/literary_fiction_pin.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/literary_fiction_pin-683x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5892\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/literary_fiction_pin-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/literary_fiction_pin-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/literary_fiction_pin-720x1080.jpg 720w, https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/literary_fiction_pin.jpg 735w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;text-align: center;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/dot.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Email\",\"Print\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"big\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"bxwretlind\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"What%20is%20Literary%20Fiction%20Really%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was wee lad (well, thirty-something), I had this idea I would be the next great horror writer. I did all things horror: wrote short stories, worked on novels, edited a horror magazine, read works by other horror authors, attempted to buy my way into horror conventions, collected horror action figures (they\u2019re not dolls!),&hellip; <br \/> <a class=\"button small blue\" href=\"https:\/\/bxwretlind.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/01\/what-is-literary-fiction-really\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,7,29,4,25,15],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-4344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-castles","category-difficult-mirrors","category-readerly-musings","category-reflection","category-regarding-dead-things-on-the-side-of-the-road","category-sketches-from-the-spanish-mustang","category-writing-2","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.6.1 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is Literary Fiction Really? - Benjamin X. 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