“Consuming Fictions: The Booker Prize and Fiction in Britain Today” by Richard Todd
Introduction
Main questions posed (p 1):
“Why, in the last quarter of a century that has seen an exponential growth in the means and speed of communication, do people continue to buy, read and enjoy new literary novels?”
“What forces guide their choice of such reading matter?”
“How are such novels brought to public attention?”
“What is distinctive about the fiction of the last fifteen years?”
First part of book “…begins with an attempt to account for the phenomenal international success of A. S. Byatt’s Possession: A Romance (1990), which won Britain’s 1990 Booker Prize” (p 1)
“Topics covered include the increasing profile given to literary prizes through press and TV coverage in Britain, and concomitant changes, many of them formidably entrepreneurial, in Britain’s book trade in so far as these concern the production and consumption of fiction” (p 2)
Press and media attention related to Booker Prize certainly makes it feel more important
ex: Obama attending (virtual) award ceremony for 2020 prize
“The second part of the book, while discussing a selection of themes that have preoccupied novelists in the past two decades, also explores literary fiction’s existence as a consumer product” (p 2)
“exploit particular niches, angles or selling points” (p 2) <– these have changed over time, and probably based on location
ex: in America now, progressive themes are more popular and more read, when several decades ago, books with progressive themes likely struggled to find publishers, let alone readers
I think novels that discuss/analyze racism or sexism have been written and published for longer than novels with gay protagonists, but novels that focus on any of those topics are more likely to be popular now than in the past
I think people enjoy reading about more “interesting” families/people (or families/people that aren’t “perfect” or don’t follow the norm)
“By ‘serious fiction’ I mean self-consciously literary novels intended to appeal to the ‘general reader’: that is, a readership with an interest in, but not unlimited time for, the leisured consumption of full-length fiction” (p 3)
“One might say that a process of ‘canon-formation’, guided but not dictated by consumer forces, in ways that have not been seen before, has come into being over the past fifteen years or so” (p 3)
in my podcast, I mentioned how books must first be published, than distributed, than read and reviewed to even be placed in a literary canon
it makes sense that consumers guide but not dictate (this part is important) what books win prizes and are placed in literary canons (esp. pedagogical canons)
for ex, if consumers dictated canon-formation, a book like Fifty Shades of Gray could end up winning a literary prize, and that would just be messed up
instead, consumers guide the decision through their book purchasing/reading decisions, books that sell a lot are more likely to be reviewed or submitted to a literary prize for consideration (or both), but ultimately, judges who (hopefully) have a better sense of what is literary select prize winners (and these prize winners are more likely to end up in one or many literary canons)
“Serious literary fiction tends to exclude best-selling genre-fiction categories such as crime or science fiction but may make use of some of the conventions of these genres. It also includes novels that have become part of the global academic discussion of the phenomenon of literary ‘postmodernism'” (p 7)
“Despite a certain reluctance – often on the part of academics themselves – to accept the real extent to which contemporary literary canon-formation is subject to powerful, rapidly changing market forces affecting and influencing the consumer, I believe that the academic reader of contemporary serious literary fiction must reflect on the impact of such forces on the general reader.
These include the development of the Booker Prize and its shortlist;
inclusion of American authors, evntually
how other literary prizes have reacted to the Booker;
how both agents and publishers have responded to the commercial possibilities of the serious literary blockbuster that can achieve both ‘fast seller’ as well as ‘bestseller’ status…;
how the serious literary fiction title and/or author can enter the canon through a (sometimes fortuitous) combination of skillful commercial promotion, publicity and review coverage in the various media…and even be taken up into academic discussion;
the Booker Prize novels are included in our classroom, and probably others
marketing of a novel plays a role in it’s success
how booksellers co-operate with novelists to promote contemporary fiction;
how adaptions for film and/or TV can affect a given title” (p 9 – 10)
3 out of 6 of the 2020 Booker shortlist are being adapted into a TV show or film
sometimes this can take away from the book itself, either because the show/movie ends up better or more commercially popular than the books, or because the show/movie flops
some people watch the movie then read the book; if the movie is bad, these people will avoid the book
