出版与作家生涯2017theguardian.com
文学小说陷入危机：销量大幅下滑
Literary fiction in crisis as sales drop dramatically
导读
《卫报》报道英格兰艺术委员会的报告称文学小说销量大幅下滑，由此在 Hacker News 上引发了关于文学小说价值、读者群体和定义边界的争论。对写作者来说，这场争论值得一读：它既暴露了外界对"严肃写作"的偏见，也提醒我们销量数字背后有统计口径和畅销书周期等干扰因素。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
读者的趣味差异是常态，不必指望所有人欣赏你的写法，也无需因他人不感兴趣就怀疑自己写作的价值。
- 02
引用"文学小说销量下滑"这类数据时要小心：超级畅销书的周期（如《哈利·波特》系列完结）会显著扭曲整体曲线，未必是读者真的在流失。
- 03
"文学小说"本身就没有公认定义，连报告都刻意留白；为某种写作辩护前，先想清楚你谈的到底是哪一类作品。
- 04
可以说某种小说在美学上更胜一筹，但把它当成身份优越感的来源，只会让辩护失去说服力。
HN 评论精选
承认文学小说有小而真实的热爱者群体，趣味差异正常，但要区分美学判断与身份优越感。
这里对文学小说的负面情绪很有意思，很多人暗示读者并不享受它，或者说它是精英主义的、是身份象征。重要的是承认确实有一小群人热爱读文学小说。不能因为你看不到某件事的价值，就假定别人动机不纯。也许有人是拿它来标榜群体身份而非出于真心热爱，但任何圈子都如此，编程和技术圈就是典型例子。某种东西看起来小众，不等于读它的人不享受。我们的需求、经历和兴趣本来就千差万别，这没问题。认为读文学小说就高人一等的人是愚蠢的；但另一方面，他们完全可以说自己认为某种小说在美学上更优越——美学本来就是这样，人人都有发言权。
scandox查看英文原文
The negativity here about Literary fiction is interesting. A lot of people implying that readers don't enjoy it or that it's elitist or a status symbol etc... I think it's important to accept that there is a group of people - perhaps small - that love reading literary fiction. It's not reasonable to assume bad faith, just because you can't see the merit in something. There maybe people that use it as a means of identifying with a group and not out of genuine passion or interest - but that is true of every group. You always have people who attach themselves in this way: programming and tech world are a classic case. Anyway just because something seems esoteric does not mean the person iis not enjoying it. We all have radically different needs, experiences and interests. And it's OK. Anyone who thinks that because they read literary fiction they are superior in some way is foolish certainly. On the other hand they may quite reasonably say that they consider one form of fiction to be aesthetically superior: that is the nature of aesthetics - we all get our say.
文学是复杂文明与启蒙的载体，失去它会让人退回更粗暴的思维模式。
关键在于，如果我们失去人文学科及其最高表现形式，就会失去社会走向复杂化过程中积累的历史与进步启蒙，从而退回更简单、更机械、更狭隘、本质上更粗暴的模式。与其刷 Facebook，不如读更精妙的小说——哪怕只是在我们需要时仍有得选，也就够了。
DrNuke查看英文原文
Point is if we lose humanities and its highest expressions, we lose the historical and progressive enlightment how it came for societies more and more complex, in that reverting to simpler, mechanical, narrower, fundamentally brutal models. Less Facebook, then, more sophisticated novels, even the opportunity to choose them when we need them would be good enough.
销量下滑部分源于《哈利·波特》完结造成的统计波动，而报告对"文学小说"的定义本身就很模糊。
据我理解，小说销量的一部分下滑是由 2007 年《哈利·波特》系列完结造成的。卫报 2011 年的一篇文章链接了一份哈利·波特销量表格。罗琳的波特算不算文学小说？报告本身说"我们因此对文学小说的定义保持开放……它肯定不包括诗歌或戏剧，我们看的是小说"。这让我相信它落在了他们的定义之内。
galeforcewinds查看英文原文
I have understood some drop in fiction book sales to be caused by the wind-up of the Harry Potter series in 2007. A 2011 article from The Guardian (Datablog section, author uncredited) linked to this spreadsheet of Harry Potter book sales numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C6QriM1aMBd5Ab6Tn7hn2SzrveVnw0-u4pabuj-nP80/edit?usp=sharing Is Rowling's Potter part of Literary Fiction? The report states "We therefore leave the definition of what literary fiction is, open. [...] What it definitely is not, for our purposes, is poetry or plays. We are looking at fiction." Which causes me to believe it does fall within their definition.
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