{"id":1249,"date":"2014-10-15T06:57:23","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T06:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2014-11-17T13:51:57","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T13:51:57","slug":"literature-is-way-too-snobby-so-say-goodbye-to-guilty-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/literature-is-way-too-snobby-so-say-goodbye-to-guilty-pleasures\/","title":{"rendered":"Literature is way too snobby, so say goodbye to Guilty Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Claire McGowan<\/a>, City University London<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Our Guilty Pleasures<\/a> series featured literature academics writing about their guilty summer reads. Claire McGowan rounds it off by dismissing the term entirely.<\/em><\/p>\n

Between seeing author talks and comedy and plays at this year\u2019s Edinburgh fringe, I had a conversation with someone about Cloud Atlas<\/a>. Now, I\u2019ve loved some of David Mitchell\u2019s work, especially Ghostwritten<\/a>, and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet<\/a>, and I\u2019m really excited to read his latest<\/a>, but I couldn\u2019t get on with Cloud Atlas at all. I\u2019m just not a fan of experimental form, in novels or anything else \u2013 it\u2019s a matter of taste. I explained all this. \u201cOh,\u201d said my conversation partner, condescendingly. \u201cThat means you couldn\u2019t get through the first chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the fact that I don\u2019t think Cloud Atlas actually has chapters, this made me smile. As someone who lectures in creative writing, has published three novels, and has an English degree from Oxford, I don\u2019t often feel patronised when talking about books. These days, I know that I know my stuff, so I can shrug it off. But it made me realise just how much snobbery there is out there about literature.<\/p>\n

I write crime fiction and for the past two years have been teaching the MA in Crime Writing<\/a> at City University London. We set up this course, the first in the UK to focus on the genre, after seven years of running the successful literary novels pathway, and it\u2019s been going very well. But I\u2019m aware that though arguably more likely to get published, however talented the students I teach are, they will always get fewer reviews in the press than our literary colleagues. They\u2019re less likely to be featured in book festivals, or win awards, just because they write something with a strong plot.<\/p>\n

Pure snobbery<\/h2>\n

I think it\u2019s time to end this snobbery about what constitutes \u201cguilty reading\u201d. Last year\u2019s PLR figures<\/a>, which round up library loans in the UK, show what people actually read as opposed to what wins prizes and gets column inches. Crime and thrillers dominate<\/a>, as well as erotic bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey<\/a> and its sequels.<\/p>\n

The Fifty Shades phenomenon was fascinating to me. When I said I was going to read it to see what the fuss was about, good friends said (jokingly \u2026 I think), \u201cyou\u2019re dead to me\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m going to unfollow you on Facebook until you\u2019ve finished it\u201d. I was just heartened that people were reading a book, talking about a book in the media, and even getting angry about a book. Given the anxiety about declining readerships, isn\u2019t it time to celebrate the fact that people are reading books \u2013 any books \u2013 instead of watching Netflix or playing Candy Crush on their phones?<\/p>\n

\"\"
Doughnuts might be considered a guilty pleasure. But a book?<\/span>
\n amylovesyah<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Research<\/a> has shown that encouraging children to read a wide variety of genres, even comics and graphic novels, boosts literacy, as does letting them choose their own books. For adults, the Quick Reads<\/a> scheme has produced short, accessible books by a variety of popular commercial authors in crime, women\u2019s fiction, and other genres. The idea is to break down the notion that books are somehow for the elite, or that you have to be clever to read certain things \u2013 and also the idea that some books are more worthy than others.<\/p>\n

I think the whole concept of \u201cguilty pleasures\u201d undermines this. As vices go, reading a book is unlikely to harm your health or damage the environment or upset your nearest and dearest. On the contrary, all reading is a boon. As a writer I want to be read and I\u2019m happy if what I produce is considered popular, gripping, and entertaining. I often hear genre authors trying to cite their work as a commentary on social issues, or position it in the canon, and maybe this is true \u2013 but for me I write mostly to tell stories, and amuse people.<\/p>\n

In my life I\u2019ve read and enjoyed many classics. I\u2019ve read Zola in the original French and loved it. I\u2019ve studied Rabelais and Shakespeare and I wrote my dissertation on Henry Fielding. I\u2019m obsessed with Sylvia Plath and keep a copy of Louis MacNiece\u2019s Autumn Journal<\/a> by my bed at all times.<\/p>\n

But equally I\u2019ve loved Jilly Cooper<\/a> and Agatha Christie and Marian Keyes and consider Stephen King one of the finest writers of our times. This summer I read I Am Pilgrim<\/a>, a stunning, sprawling thriller by screenwriter Terry Hayes, and can\u2019t wait for The Secret Place<\/a> by Irish writer Tana French. I\u2019ve also been harrowed by A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing<\/a> and loved Americanah<\/a>. Books are books \u2013 let\u2019s allow people to like what they like, and celebrate the fact that in an increasingly frenetic digital world anyone takes the time to pick up, or click into, a book, and lose themselves in the words. Whatever those words may be.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Claire McGowan does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.<\/em><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>.
\n Read the original article<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Claire McGowan, City University London Our Guilty Pleasures series featured literature academics writing about their guilty summer reads. Claire McGowan rounds it off by dismissing the term entirely. Between seeing author talks and comedy and plays at this year\u2019s Edinburgh fringe, I had a conversation with someone about Cloud Atlas. Now, I\u2019ve loved some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":1269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":[],"categories":[37,10,36],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}