Commercial Fiction: Seeks to entertain Best sellers Bodice Rippers Mystery Provides an opportunity for escape Reduces Stress Provides enjoyment Make money Goal: Take us AWAY from the world
Also provides enjoyment but authors hope to: Broaden, deepen, and sharpen the reader’s awareness of life Provide a lasting intellectual pleasure Take us more deeply into life Create a sense of empathy with others Enable us to understand the complexities of life
For instance, Charles Dickens wrote novels like, A Christmas Carol, which provided marvelous sales and income + entertainment but is seldom classified as literary fiction. On the other hand, novels like, Hard Times and David Copperfield, provided entertainment and a deeper look into the human condition. These novels are considered literary fiction.
The value of literature does not reside in the presence or absence of a “moral” Whether a novel or story includes “facts” does not necessarily define the literary weight. For example: Good historical novels provide many facts but may only depict the shallowest look at human nature…
Commercial fiction can appear to be very realistic and portray everyday scenes and situations but …lack any depth of presentation beyond the reality. A tale full of wizardry and flying men may, on the other hand, reveal some surprising truths. For example: Detective novels-- Realistic and escapist Bloodchild by Octavia Butler about futuristic beings who require a surrogate to reproduce reveals profound thoughts on the nature of slavery
Happily Ever After Rabbits Happy Endings Duex ex Machina (Think Frankie Avalon in Grease) Plot Manipulation (Think—why can the bad guys in, say Die Hard, not hit the side of a barn?) Beautiful heroines/hunky heroes Vicarious Expectations Big Blue Bow
Explorers Wow—human beings are so complex Dispel stereotypes Dispel illusions Seek to empathize with characters see, feel, and understand them better Illuminate human behavior Create original characters and situations
Carefully—At least twice First time to familiarize; second more slowly Expectantly-Seek to find the writer’s purpose Engagingly-involve yourself intellectually and emotionally Open-mindedly-suspend your doubts and expectations while reading Expect the unexpected Realize the unsettling outcomes, challenging ideas, and questions = Real Life
To learn to get the most from whatever we read To learn to chose wisely—what books/stories will give the greatest “return” on our investment of time and attention To learn the elements of fiction (and poetry) To learn to explore fiction as an “indispensible source of knowledge” to better understand the world, and ultimately yourselves
A)Bellyache B)Gas C)Weight gain D)Poor health E)Heartburn F)Diabetes G)And so on …
We expect only happy endings, happily ever after, and big blue bows We are poor bullet dodgers (emotional and real) We expect our significant others to be flawless (and shirtless…) We are unable to relate to people outside our realm of experience Our minds and hearts are far less engaged