What's wrong with genre fiction and why lit guys dismiss

I don't see anything wrong with it. If it sells well, go for it. (most of it doesn't sell well either, btw)

>>9772884
You can read for:
>entertainment
>information
>understanding

Genre fiction is (by definition) writing that only fulfills the first of those 3. Reading for understanding is a deep and rich experience, considered more rewarding by /lit/.

It also demands considerably more of the reader: where reading genre fiction is a largely passive affair, literature is active and involved.

>>9772884
It's just about standards. 99.9999999% of sci-fi and fantasy books (I guess you were talking about these genres, since we're on 4chan) are pure shit, and fans of these genres are usually far too apologetic (they're willing to read anything as long as it's not evidently mediocre, even for illiterate's standards) for outsiders to trust them.

The result is that is is very hard to trust anything that comes out of these genres, or anyone who is willing to associate with it,

>>9772963
sound like popular music.

>>9772963
well also the fact that most of it is completely identical to 100 other books in the same genre, but genre readers are not well read enough to realize it.

If they can make money doing it, then that's cool, but like I said most of them don't even do that.

>>9772963

This is the main reason. Genre shit just exists in its own little sphere and it seems like the only authors who break out of that and get respected as real literature are ones that are influenced by the great tradition of western literature rather than mainly video games or some recent marketing trends.

>>9772884
It's probably better if you hear it from a class on genre fiction writing, with several business-related advice, directly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXSjRqTZeCs&t=10m10s
a window on the high opinion these people have of their audiences. If the writers they adore and shower with cash don't respect them, why would I ever?
>>9772967
>sound like popular music
Speaking of which, watch this too, OP:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9AbuFhT0W4

>>9772985
is there a real reason or is just conservative snobbery.

It seems like critiquing mc donalds for serving fast food.

A lot of it is trash, but so is a lot of everything. I read plenty of sci-fi and crime fiction alongside more traditionally literary works.

>>9772884
Storybooks are a waste of time I could spend learning tangible things of relevance to the world around actually around me, not the one imagined in someone else's head as their play thing. It's the same reason I would not watch dramatizations over documentaries. One is fluff, the other actually happened.

Some novels have their merit in foreboding the potential follies of man, but we'll not act like the majority of authors and their works are trying to elevate social commentary on the ails of society.

>>9772884
There's no such thing as ""genre fiction"".

(Teh famous Greeks you're supposed to start with composed mass-market genre shit for plebs. So did Shakespeare.)

>>9772996
Is the process through which the thing comes into existence not real or not a reason?

>>9773035
>Teh famous Greeks you're supposed to start with composed mass-market genre shit for plebs. So did Shakespeare.
Please, elaborate.

my family was killed by genre fiction

>>9773050
My family IS genre fiction

>>9773046
He thinks literacy was widespread

>>9773046
>>9773046
shakespeare was the medieval version of mexican soap operas.

>>9773071
That's not quite what I expected from an elaboration.

>>9773084
I'm not him.

>>9772884
People with autism tend to have a very hard time understanding fiction. Welcome to 4chan.

>>9773088
Then why did you reply to me, when you are neither him nor can offer an elaboration?
Kill yourself you faggot

because genre fiction, by definition, is usually restrained by the limits of the genre to which it belongs, and most of the truly excellent literature (fiction and non-fiction) was not contained to "genre fiction." personally, i believe there IS genre fiction which either transcends the boundaries of genre or while working within the clearly defined realms of "genre", still managed to create great art.

of course you should also be aware that plenty of it is just shitposting.

>>9772884
it's a result of marketing and reinforcement of tired tropes, sticking to the stereotypical ideas of what a sci-fi or fantasy novel is.
funny thing is a lot of acclaimed contemporary literary novels are like this also, with focus on superficially stylistic and affected prose, for example.
creativity isn't valued when you can just stick with a formula to sell shit.

There is no work of fiction that isn't genre fiction.

>>9773098
Retard.

Genre fiction is produced by writers that need book sales to support themselves, whereas literary fiction is written by people that have a job, for example university teaching, or patronage.
By depending so much on book sales, genre fiction is an integrated part of the Society of the Spectacle, a product of industrial design just like TV shows, pop music, cape comics and movies, etc. only in written format.
For more on the industrialization of art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9AbuFhT0W4
By belonging to a specific genre, the product and production are trapped in the expectations and language (i.e. muh tropes) of its related subculture. It's a dialectical, but uneven, relationship where the works can indeed influence the subcultures, but the subcultures influence the works more heavily.
For more on the topic of fans of genre fiction and their relationships: http://pastebin.com/F1rwJ2wK
I find most hilarious that genre fiction fans come up with all these conspiracies concerning universities refusing to acknowledge the existence of their beloved doorstoppers, whereas academic institutions are VERY interested in what everyone is reading, watching and listening to, their contents, their appeal, and repeatedly publish in-depth analyses of them, and not just ye olden genres' classics at that, for example:
http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-324354.html
If they knew anything they'd probably cry that their favs are getting too much attention.

A work could discuss things that aren't imprisoned in the samsara of eternally recurrent omnipresent sets of tropes, such as the contingencies of the day, for example the writer himself, or social commentary concerning events happening in the CURRENT YEAR.
Literature could be a method of analyzing reality instead of escaping it, and obsess over plot in a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold.
Now if you'd excuse me, I'll end the post here given that the dragons down in my basement aren't going to slay themselves.

>>9772937
What's the real distinction though? You can do all of that in genre fiction.

>>9772884
It's that genre fiction is generally less technically competent in its means of expression. It's still valuable. You get to see what people like. Literary fiction often suffers from a total lack of interest, which in truth makes it even worse. Henry James said that fiction must at least be interesting. I mean sure McDonald's is shit but for lots of people it least it taste good. Imagine a high end restaurant serving you expensive food that didn't taste good? Lots of writers at university are committed to "brilliant" experiments in expression. And it's really sad because it isn't even interesting.

>>9772967
Except popular music is a small minority in the larger musical scene. While things labeled as "genre fiction" make up 99.9% of books published.