I’m a non-literary literary writer
I’ve started reading How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead: Your Words in Print and Your Name in Lights
So I confess here and now I am officially a non-literary literary writer. I’m intelligent and can read anything, EXCEPT dull stories. This all began in high school. I was, as mentioned before, an avid reader, but something happened when I got into high school in the 9th grade (it was Catholic private school). The books they gave us to read were no longer interesting but important. And one day, I was forced to read “Ethan Frome”.
Don’t ask me why. This is one piece of classical literature I’ve never heard mentioned ever since the 10th grade. So there I was, 15 years old and shopping for cliff notes. I was a straight A, honor role, honor society, advanced class kid and I believed cliff notes to be cheating. (They didn’t even have the yellow Cliff version, only the cheezy red, 2nd class brand.)
The thing was, I read EF - or tried to. After 10 pages, I had no idea what I was reading and started again. And again. And then said, fuck it! and bought the cliffies.
Somehow I got a 90 on the test, because I gotta tell ya, even the damn cliff notes were boring.
Which is not to say that all literature is boring. I liked the Scarlet Letter (story about a hussy in a time when they were taboo), and I love Shakespeare (all that blood, and violence, and madness, and suicide!). Crucible was good too (evil children), and Jane Eyre was ok, but I do have passion for Jane Austen (early feminism). As an adult, I’ve tried to catch up. Les Miserables was miserable. Atlas Shrugged was great except for the 9000 pages of philosophy in the middle. Anna Karenina just made me want to drink, and don’t get me started on the 7?9? times I tried to get past page 100 in the Brothers Karamazov.
BUT I adore GOOD literary fiction. And I’ve found a truth: just because it’s old and studied in school doesn’t necessary make it relevant to my life. That list of books I have on this site? There all fairly lit. And yet, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that you can’t be a good writer without being well-read - meaning those ancient texts that have nothing to say or relate anymore - then I’d be quite wealthy.
So that’s one of my flaws. I’m sure there’s more…
Good point. My friend and I have a theory that people claim to love those types of books because they’ve been taught that that’s what “smart people” read. I have picked up books by Pulitzer Prize winning authors and was bored to tears, unnecessarily confused, or totally uninterested in the story — I’m thinking: Just because someone wins a prize doesn’t mean I HAVE to like it or I’m an idiot because I don’t see all the grand artistry. I’m with you … a good story is a good story, whether it’s written by Victor Hugo or John Grisham. (P.S. I do have to say that I loved Anna Karenina. I loved Brothers Karamazov in theory, but I also had trouble getting past the first hundred pages. It was just too daunting.)
I agree! For a long time I felt so guilty about this, and then I was working in a small financial firm, and learned that an English lit degree is perfect for a business pro or MBA candidate! I laughed, because my dad taught me that an English degree was good for nothing, while life taught me that it was good for scenarios where you NEED to be college-well-read.
I have read literary books that have great parts to it. Bros. Karamazov does have a great plotline and I really wanted to make it through, but alas, I have a life and kids and a husband and a business and a novel too, lol…
Hmm. I’m feeling a little weird here! I LOVED all four of the novels you mentioned as hating. In fact, I read Les Mis two or three years back and realized it was a book I read when I was in the fourth grade. It has haunted me all these years (the journey through the sewers, the woman driven to prostitution, the girl dying on the barricade), but I couldn’t remember the title and didn’t know what book it was that I kept thinking about.
Though I have to say, I loved the books on your list that I read also, and I’d argue Time Traveler’s Wife as literary fiction any day.
Don’t feel weird, Katrina, to each his own. I’ve often been intimidated and in writing classes taught that you need to have read these to write well, and that infuriates me.
With Les Mis, the main issue was that Hugo kept philosophizing, and I was getting frustrated that he would wander so far from the story with what was probably key social and political commentary. I was probably 800 pages in out of 1100, I think, when I gave up out of frustration.
Between that and my short memory, I get very frustrated some older books. There are some that I really like, it’s just that there’s probably more that I don’t like or have no interest in tackling.