Quote of the Day
Reading through Facebook posts this morning, an author I'm a fan of (Dana Stabenow, who writes my recent series obsession) posted a link to this interesting blog (which I think I might add to my feed reader, actually) that reposts interesting letters.
I -think- I've had the "what is literature?" discussion here? I'm sure everyone that reads "genre" fiction has had this kind of debate with someone. What makes classic literature "literature"? And why is there such a stigma against the type of fiction that the majority of people seem to prefer? Why is it more commendable to read "classics" than modern mysteries or sci-fi? And beyond that, why do we even have segregation like that in books/literature? The world may never know.
Anyway, the letters. So it's a letter from one Forrest J. Ackerman (who apparently is a "legendary" fan of sci-fi who actually coined that shortening...I had no idea) to his favorite author at the time, Edgar Rice Burroughs (who wrote Tarzan), and then Mr. Burroughs' reply. I really, really love that reply. It's definitely my quote of the day:
"No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, then it is good literature, of its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature."
And further, because it totally made me laugh, thinking back to all the required reading lists we all grumbled over in school: "The required reading [at schools] seemed to have been selected with the sole purpose of turning the hearts of young people against books. That, however, seems to be a universal pedagogical complex: to make the acquiring of knowledge a punishment, rather than a pleasure."
I -think- I've had the "what is literature?" discussion here? I'm sure everyone that reads "genre" fiction has had this kind of debate with someone. What makes classic literature "literature"? And why is there such a stigma against the type of fiction that the majority of people seem to prefer? Why is it more commendable to read "classics" than modern mysteries or sci-fi? And beyond that, why do we even have segregation like that in books/literature? The world may never know.
Anyway, the letters. So it's a letter from one Forrest J. Ackerman (who apparently is a "legendary" fan of sci-fi who actually coined that shortening...I had no idea) to his favorite author at the time, Edgar Rice Burroughs (who wrote Tarzan), and then Mr. Burroughs' reply. I really, really love that reply. It's definitely my quote of the day:
"No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, then it is good literature, of its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature."
And further, because it totally made me laugh, thinking back to all the required reading lists we all grumbled over in school: "The required reading [at schools] seemed to have been selected with the sole purpose of turning the hearts of young people against books. That, however, seems to be a universal pedagogical complex: to make the acquiring of knowledge a punishment, rather than a pleasure."