#mostly based on my reading of marian keyes novels tbh | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

throughdarkeningskies · 4 months ago

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when I was a teen and I read everything I could get my hands on, I had this rule in my head to seperate 'literary' fic from 'chick-lit'. and the rule was this: if they have sex and its bad its literary. if they have sex and they enjoy it its chick-lit.

alternate variations:

- if there are dark serious themes explored and everyone is dark and serious about it it's literary. if dark serious themes are explored but the characters crack jokes about it its chick-lit

- if a man writes it its literary and if a woman writes it its chick-lit

- if its written with the most dry boring-ass prose possible it's literary. if its written the way an actual person would talk its chick-lit

#mostly based on my reading of marian keyes novels tbh #genuinely one of the most incredibly skilled irish writers ever in my eyes #and yet she sort of gets pigeonholed as like. a 'women's writer'#or used to anyway i think people are a bit better about it now #similar to maeve binchy actually. yes her books leave you with a warm feeling but theres still huge complexity to them #idk. the contrast between keyes and other irish 'greats' stood out to me a lot as a teen #applies to a huge amount of 'genre' fiction also #just this idea that the only writers who actually write in a way thats good to your brain arent Real Storytelling #that they're somehow lesser than stories which are the most dry bland shit on earth #like god i know i say this as an English graduate but i dont like a lot of 'literary' fiction ☠ or 'literary' as a classification at all #its interesting the degree to which the irish writing scene just doesnt seem to think the adult scifi/fantasy scene exists at all #GOD OKAY if i keep talking I'll end up having like three seperate rants #anyway. sorry about the ramble. goodnight

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