I think when it comes to fiction, the general consensus seems to be that literary fiction is better than commercial fiction. I am not sure why publishing and the world seems to hold literary fiction as ‘quality’ fiction and commercial fiction as ‘cheap and redundant’ but it seems like another way to dismiss women and especially women of color because commercial fiction tends to be written more by those groups than not. Take my words with a grain of salt as I have no real stats backing up this claim but I have spent a lot of time observing and making note of the differences. Most bestsellers tend to be commercial fiction and a lot of books with a cult following tend to be commercial fiction, so why is that commercial fiction is looked down on? Even when commercial fiction has proved itself to be life changing and thought provoking. I DON’T KNOW and that discussion might be left better addressed in an actual discussion post which this is decidedly not. I just want to kind of make a point and share a quiz I made!!! SO go forth and guess what books are commercial fiction or literary fiction. I promise the quiz isn’t hard. It’s still fun though. I HOPE.
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Genni @ Ready, Set, Read!
I really liked this quiz and would be interested to see a discussion post on why commercial fiction is considered “less than” literary fiction. I got a couple wrong – Pride and Prejudice being the one I remember. I always associate that with literary fiction because it’s in school’s curriculum, so I tend to forget it was commercial fiction for it’s time.
Mary @StackingMyBookShelves!
I didn’t realize this. Makes me look at literary fiction a different way. Great post.
Mary