About Writing

The answers to this question are as numerous as there are readers.

Why are Jane Austen’s novels studied as literature now when they were considered to be merely light entertainment two hundred years ago? Today’s best-written passionate romances are not accepted as literature. They are assumed to be derivative, poorly written and low-brow, based on their genre.

Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, which begins with the moment of the author’s conception, and equally bawdy Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, are some of the earliest English novels. They include humor at its broadest, but are judged to be literature because of the way they engage with ideas. However today, broad humor is automatically excluded from consideration as literature.

We need to be thoughtful when we judge literature. Literature can include romance. Literature can include broad humor. Literature is text worth reading because it engages with ideas in original ways. It makes readers pause to reflect. It broadens our thinking.

Having said all that, I do not claim to have any pretensions towards being a literary figure. Aussie Guards readers, enjoy yourselves!