What’s the difference between literary fiction and commercial fiction? This is the sort of questions we writers obsess about. In fact, a bunch of us were obsessing about just this question the other night, over sandwiches and beer. One of us suggested that commercial fiction fits into a genre, literary fiction doesn’t.

By this definition, a book about somebody’s attempt to unravel a mysterious murder isn’t literature because it can be classified as a murder mystery. We’ve just eliminated Snow Falling on Cedars. Give me your best description of the genre known as romance fiction and I’ll show you how it proves that Pride and Prejudice isn’t literature. Read more

Ansary will visit the campus to deliver a talk on “Why Islam Has Trouble with Modernity”–a preview of his upcoming book, “World History through Islamic Eyes.”

October 24, 2007

(Time and venue to be announced)