Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Contemplative Life in Li-tra-cha

Is the so-called literary life dead? Does a world in which blogs and magazine articles are being adapted into books have no place for the thoughtful novelist?

Three new novelists are about to find out. Each of them co-edits a journal (i.e., they are making a living in the literary field, as opposed to being lawyers, doctors or financial advisors who can also write) and they're coming out with first novels that range from autobiographical to literary with genre influences.

Literary novels get, um, dumped on a bit by genre authors. Frankly, I find the attitude unreasonably defensive, as distasteful in its own way as the most snooty put-down of genre writing from a so-called "real author."

For those who think "serious literature" (whatever that may be) is an antiquated concept, one of the three authors, Nathaniel Rich, has this to say, "I think there are more people engaged with literature than there ever have been. When people think about the golden age of the novel in the 19th century, literacy rates were absurdly low. There wasn't electricity to read by: People weren't just sitting around reading all day then either."

It'll be interesting to see how their books do on the market. And where their careers go from here.

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