Does serious = obscure?

In a recent interview, I was asked about the “abiding division between ‘literary’ and ‘popular’ novels”. I was asked whether I thought my writing managed to span the division. And whether I considered it interesting to apply these kind of labels at all.

Perhaps because we’ve faced some pretty serious issues, I think our society has tended to obsess a little more than most about whether a writer happens to be “serious” or not. Obviously, I’m happy if my writing is seen to straddle the great divide. I try to be accessible. That doesn’t mean I don’t try to grapple with interesting issues and themes.

But why do we find it necessary to enclose fiction into these restrictive boxes? We make excuses for reading genre novels. We feel vaguely ashamed if we’re not seen to be reading something deeply obscure. 

When a book is written accessibly, in a particular genre, or if it does well, it’s assumed that it can’t possibly be serious. There is often something inherently sexist in these assumptions. They cast sly aspersions at women, with references to women’s writing, and “bookclub reads”…

(When my first book came out and was not doing badly, a critic wrote that he couldn’t understand the fuss since I was just a “woman’s writer”. He later argued that his comment had referred to the fact that women were more prolific readers than men. But actually, he was simply being insulting – not just to me, but to all readers who happen to be women.) 

We read for many different reasons: for comfort, emotional satisfaction, for intellectual stimulation, excitement, the beauty of the writing, or entertainment … and when we’re lucky, for combinations of these.

Some genre novels are deeply literary. They say serious things and give us a real sense of society and its issues. There’s no rule that says a genre novel can’t be written well, or that it can’t have insight, humour, irony, or deal with the tragedy of the human condition.

But I’m tempted to take the argument even further. Tackled with honesty, every book says something. The lightest and most entertaining piece of chick-lit is going to explore, hopefully with humour, the relationship between men and women, the dating rituals within our society and how we view each other.
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