Be Proud of Who and What You Are...

[kaitiana]

Cross-posting this to Fangs, Fur, & Fey because I believe it's relevant:

So following are some comments I made in response to some extremely insulting comments a couple of people made on a writing board I frequent regarding "popular" fiction, the readers of popular fiction, and the publishers who (according to them) believe that readers are "

Comments

[xamaque]

I agree there is nothing in the least wrong with putting sensual covers on books where romance or erotica play a big part of the story. That's just truth in advertising! I also am right there with you in the fight against the elitist book snobs who think anyone not reading either Dostoevsky or the latest critics pick is some kind of idiot. So what if they are mainly escapism, not 'Great Literature'? It doesn't mean there's no value to it, and everybody indulges in some type of escapism, whether it's a novel, a play, a tv show, or whatever.

However, what I do seriously object to is publishing companies attempting to dumb down a book by editing out any big words or unfamiliar terms(because Heaven forbid anyone ever have to stop and look something up) or slapping a salacious cover on a book that has nothing or little to do with sex or romance.

[strix_an_stones]

What a silly argument, and I'm sorry to hear you have to address it. I'm a Mensan, and a reading omnivore. A good many of the "classics" or the books touted as literary masterpieces are boring, trite and overblown. They are verbose to the point of inducing slumber in even the most erudite of readers with a good many of the same only buying the titles for bragging rights. I can't tell you how many people I've visted who had 'The Kite Runner' or Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' on a coffee Table, but when I started to talk about the books, they admitted to never even cracking the pages; the books were left out to impress visitors, not because they ever indulged in the quality of the content