Beattie's Book Blog pointed out this article the other day, and a couple of pals emailed too, so for those of you that missed it, here is a link to an interesting article in The Guardian Online about the place of crime fiction in the big wide world of literature.
Why does crime still have such unpardonably low literary status?
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This sort of claim is interesting Vanda. You wouldn't think crime fiction has a low status in bookshops, in libraries, among readers. The claims are usually made by journos who don't read crime fiction themselves, or who have dabbled a toe in the water, and didn't like what they tried to read. They have little appreciation of the breadth of the genre
Here is a blog post that says it all
- about the popularity of the genre anyway
I think Kerrie that the point was more that some in the media (and with focus on certain awards, particularly more literary ones) that crime and other popular fiction is generally under-rated, even looked-down-upon.
I think this is quite a valid claim. Take for instance the Montana Book Awards, or the recent Auckland Writers Festival - crime fiction got short shrift at both, completely overlooked. And as these types of events are focused on by some in the media as the 'premier' book events (eg the Booker or Orange Prizes (literary fiction) are perhaps more widely considered by the general public, courtesy of coverage in the media, as more prestigious than the CWA Daggers or MWA Edgars (crime fiction), therefore crime gets overlooked, in some ways...
Part of the problem is that literary fiction is merely a genre in itself, but some reporters/commentators/media/judgesmistakenly see it as inherently superior writing, rather than merely a different type of writing...
Though I do agree that when it comes to readers, then crime certainly does not have a low status...
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