E.g. why are the best fantasy books/series you could name (except *maybe* Tolkien) always thought of as: “That’s good for fantasy, but it’s not *literature*!” *Wheel of Time*, *Stormlight Archive*, even *A Song of Ice and Fire* I’ve seen named “not that groundbreaking/good/meaningful.” And I said maybe Tolkien because even the Legendarium is starting to be considered less philosophically and more…entertainment like.
Name me ignorant if you want, I genuinelly have no idea what is quality then. Quinn, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare, Flaubert, I’ve basically just now written all the writers thought of as “Best” I remembered or read recently. These are all (rightfully!) given their place in the lists and universities of greatest authors that ever held a pen in history.
And yet…I read *Uncle Vanya* by Chekhov and I feel the need to clap after finishing it. I reach *that* chapter in *The Wheel of Time*, *Veins of Gold*, and do the exact same thing. I read *Brothers Karamazov* or *The Trial* and am as amazed as when I read *Ainulindalë* or any of the essays Tolkien had written about Morgoth and Sauron. I read a novel by Terry Pratchett and it is as comical yet as insightful as *Revizor* by Gogol or Becket’s *Waiting for Godot* (sure, those are technically plays, but still the comparison works IMO).
Then again, is all fantasy I mentioned just *kitsch* – it’s just provoking strong emotions in me without much depth below the surface? But then – if *Veins of Gold* or *Ainulindalë* are just prettily written sheets of paper, what is **not** kitsch and is real/quality literature – only something written as roughly as *Ulysses* or *Moby Dick*? What does amount to *great literature* if **not** the provoking of strong emotions or characters so vivid they breathe on the pages?
I’ve talked about fantasy here, but I find myself thinking like this for other “genres” (honestly, I hate that term) as well. Is it just me having incredibly *low* standards? Am I just easily impressed? What do you think?
And, as a personal addition:
Honestly, as someone that wants to study literature and languages, I don’t know if this ability to enjoy everything (because I can enjoy most stories, whether film or novel, and find *something* incredible about it) will hold me back in improving in that field. But I just have absolutely no idea what is wrong then.
Thank you in advance!
by dannelbaratheon