Literary or fun? How about both?

I suppose I should apologize for not putting something up yesterday, but it’s the end of the semester for me. Hopefully, everyone understands that.

In other news, I finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the first time. It was amazing. It was one of those books that at the end, you set it aside for a few minutes and just think. You maybe re-read some of the ending scenes, but mostly, you just think. Wow. If only every book hit you that hard. It was fun to read, and the pages kept turning, but it still made you think.

I was reading some silly online memes earlier today, and I noticed that quite a few of them were dissing fantasy and fiction (especially genre fiction). Some criticized adults who like children’s literature (I happen to be one) and said some rather insulting things about them, which I don’t think are true. They may be for some, I suppose, but not for me.

Anyway! Back to my point. Sometimes people criticize fantasy and sci-fi for not being literary enough. They don’t make fun of people who read it and don’t like people to write it. This bugs me. I know that they aren’t the same as To Kill a Mockingbird, but I still think that some of it, at least, has literary worth. This meme even criticized readers of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, which is generally held to be a classic.

This doesn’t seem right to me. I have genres I don’t like, but I don’t call people stupid for liking them. In many cases, I think we should be glad that they are reading anything at all.

In any class I’ve had where they try to distinguish literary from genre fiction, plot driven from character driven stories, I always think about the many, many instances that blur the line. Can you really be interested in only the characters without being interested in the plot? I don’t think so. No. Without something happening to them, all you would be seeing is the characters talking to each other. You wouldn’t have any reason to be interested in them.

Can you be interested in the plot without being interested in the characters? Some would say yes, but I think that there needs to be at least one character that you are interested in. Why else would you be interested in the plot? Sure, not every character is well-rounded and 3D, but you have to care about someone. Someone has to change.

The line isn’t as clear-cut as some would think, and it isn’t just plot-driven genre fiction that crosses into literary fiction. I personally think that without the story of Boo Radley, and the Ewells, what would endear us to Scout Finch? Don't get me wrong; I love her, but remember my point. Something has to happen in a story. Characters and plot are hand-in-hand. I recognize that there are different categories. I just wish some people wouldn’t be so stiff about it.

In Andrew Clements’ The School Story (a children’s book—I really don’t understand why adults aren’t supposed to like them), he tells us, “Like all writers, first [Natalie] was a reader.” So today, I am a Writer, but I am also a Reader. And I like reading all kinds of things, both classics AND fantasy. And sometimes, the line can be crossed.