Short Stories, Irish literature, Classics, Modern Fiction, Contemporary Literary Fiction, The Japanese Novel, Post Colonial Asian Fiction, The Legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and quality Historical Novels are Among my Interests








Thursday, September 8, 2011

Welcome to All Literary Book Bloggers Sept 8 to Sept 11


Welcome to All Literary Book Blog Hoppers

I happily return all follows and  visits-just leave a comment-
I am always glad to see the Literary Book Blog Hop-sometimes I admit I feel out of place in a world of YA books, vampire romances and ARC reviews.   It is good to meet other people with interests beyond these.

When I started my blog nearly two years ago, I planned to focus on books about people who lead at least partially reading centered lives.   This is still a core focus of my blog but in reality I post on a variety of topics including Japanese literature, post colonial Asia fiction, classics, and lately I have been very into short stories.  My  blog is the home of Irish Short Story Week II (set for March 2012).   I also love modern writers like Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bowen and Ford Madox Ford.   I like to discover new to me authors and I am open to joint projects and events.

Every Hop we are asked to answer a thought provoking question-this week the question is

Must all literary writing be difficult? Can you think of examples of literary writing that was not difficult? 




Just today I posted on three short stories that are for sure examples of literary writing.   One by O Henry that is very uncomplicated (and may not be seen as literary by some), one by Sherwood Anderson and one by Guy de Maupassant.   None of these stories were "difficult" reads.   I am ok with difficult texts if comes from a work of high value that is difficult because it is rich in content.    Difficulty should be from the need to communicate much in a few words.




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Mel u

5 comments:

Song said...

I like how you mentioned the "showing off" bit, Mel. I'd wanted to mention this in post, but then it got too long, and examples weren't at the tip of my tongue to put them down as evidence. But yes...I feel sometimes that writers tend to be way too verbose just to show off their command of the language. And I sometimes feel some writers deliberately look for weird ways in which to present their story or write a story solely to show that they are different - I also suspect they're the only ones who enjoy it. I'm not saying that being different is bad. There are writers who pull it off so well because they have the talent.

Mel u said...

Risa-I liked the comment you left on your blog a lot-I think if a work is difficult than it must be of high value to justify it-I have no problems or issues with difficult works and love a number of them but I do have issues with pretentious works that do not repay the efforts they ask of their readers.

Rebecca Chapman said...

I definitely understand what you are saying. There are some literary books that I wish the author had simplified the language a little in order to make the story more accessible. I don't know its necessarily about showing off - I suspect that the authors are just really skilled and that is what comes naturally to them.

It would just be nice sometimes if they went through and make it just that little bit easier to understand. But then maybe its must me and my little brain :-)

Stephanie said...

Stopping by via Twitter.

I enjoyed your comments about the "pay-off" of great literary fiction, and think that this is often the case. Some books are just so exquisitely written, evoke such wonderful imagery, or are so thematically strong that I'm prepared for a challenge. Of course, there are others that rely on illusions and don't offer the reader much beyond false promises and pretension!

Fortunately I tend to come across less of the latter than I do of the former. :)

LBC said...

I like the terminology "rich in content." I don't think that having a "difficult" experience is required for reading to be worthwhile. However, I do think that things can be deceptively simple, and to really get all that they have to offer, the reader has to take an active role as well.

Here is my post.