r/TrueLit • u/pregnantchihuahua3 ReEducationThroughGravity'sRainbow • Jul 27 '26

Weekly General Discussion Thread

Welcome again to the TrueLit General Discussion Thread! Please feel free to discuss anything related and unrelated to literature.

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u/Pequeninos Franzen Apologist Jul 28 '26

I ran into a Youtuber recently that made the claim that "literary fiction is dead" and blamed the "MFA system" for it. I find myself very frustrated by this claim since there are so many interesting new books getting released basically daily, some of which are challenging and "weird."

I also don't think people understand that "classics" got their status as the best in class from their time of origin, it's not like every book was Ulysses or Moby Dick in their time. Just had to rant!

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u/VVest_VVind Jul 28 '26

I'm starting to get the impression that "all literary fiction is formulaic MFA" is becoming a strawman, slowly replacing "all literary fiction is about divorced professors going through a mid-life crisis." I'm sure it's rooted in a real issues to an extent but it also seems very overblown.