My definition of the "literati":
Those who either write material that is painful to read, or those who exercise their influence to persuade us that such pain is "for our own good."
Nevertheless, I suspect that the overwhelming popularity of the Rowling books, not to mention the elevation of JRRT to "Author of the Century" by the reading public, bespeaks the ultimate failure and futility of the literati to drive the desire for fantasy from the public psyche. It smacks to me of drawing a circle, an "Inner Ring" to employ the same term used by C. S. Lewis, in an attempt to provoke people to some kind of jealousy of "not being on the inside." How many people (outside of school assignments) have read books in which they had no interest and from which they derived little pleasure, just to seem intelligent and witty in saying that they'd read them?
I am reminded of an episode of "The Brady Bunch" (yes, I know how that dates me), in which 7-year-old Cindy, smarting from someone calling her "immature", comes home from the library lugging a weighty volume. Dad Brady sees her and naturally asks, "Whatcha readin'?" Cindy, nose elegantly elevated, replies "
A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway." Brother Greg, trying to be helpful, says "shouldn't you be reading Dr. Seuss?" Cindy haughtily snorts, "those are
children's books!" before raising her nose another notch and flouncing off with her superority intact. Poor Cindy had been duped into thinking that admission to the inner circle (in this case, of "maturity") was to be had by reading things you don't want to read.
However,
Quote:
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Originally Posted by William Cloud Hickli
the Literati seem always to prefer petty, miserable stories about the petty, miserable little lives of petty, miserable little people in petty, miserable little suburbs.
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Charles Dickens, anyone?
I don't know the real source of the quote, but Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka character said "A little nonsense now and then is treasured by the wisest men." I second that.
Does anyone know if Tolkien's "On fairy Stories" is (legally) available on the Web? If so, please post a link -- it is something I've been meaning to read for years, but haven't had the rare combination of time, opportunity, or availability.