Literature: What is it?

Oh Mighty Google, show me what Literature is!

A year or two ago, one of my English professors on the first day of class asked a very interesting question: what is literature? Here we were, a bunch of English majors with quite a few English courses under our belts yet failed to give literature an adequate definition. Sure, you can look in the dictionary where you'll find three different meanings, each growing broader ("leaflets and other printed matter used to advertise products or give advice." Okay that is pretty much anything written for public consumption). Yet for something so slippery, we as society value this word. You are either a English major with emphasis in creative writing or in literature. When shopping at Barnes and Nobles you pass the Romance, Young Adult, Graphic Comic and the Literature section. If you're seen reading something by the Brontë sisters, Dickens, Fitzgerald, they assume you're reading something literary.

It's just, weird.

One thing I do know about literature is that literature isn't written, it's made. Readers and critics alike decide what falls under "literary" and what gets shelved under a more precise genre shelf (aka the cafeteria). Sometimes it's instantly. Others, it takes time. Harry Potter forever was under the children's section. It still is--but you can also find it with the literary fiction along with other classical stuff today. The Road which came out in 2006, was instantly in literary fiction, but more so because Cormac McCarthy already had made quite an impression in the Literary world and let's not forget that nice gold P sticker stamped on the front. "Collect 200 and pass GO" said the majority of the readers, and so that book when straight on the literary shelf.

So what the hell am I blabbering about? What is your point Caitlin!?!?

My point, dear reader, is I spend a lot of time reading what people qualify as literature and desiring what is not "literary."

Currently reading:

• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
• Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

What I want to read but can't because I have literally no time:

• Rebel Angels by Libba Bray.

What I feel like doing at the moment:

At least I got SOME writing done. But sadly, not as much as the previous week.

WORD COUNT: 892

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin Review

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive.

(If you haven't read Ashfall, I high suggest you get on that).

Severed Heads, Broken Hearts Cover Contest

Robyn Schneider, author of upcoming 2013 book Severed Heads, Broken Hearts is having a cover contest. Winner gets an ARC months in advance and who doesn't love Advanced Reading Copies?

Here's a quick book blurb:

Golden boy Ezra Faulkner believes everyone has a tragedy waiting for them—a single encounter after which everything that really matters will happen. His particular tragedy waited until he was primed to lose it all: in one spectacular night, a reckless driver shatters Ezra’s knee, his athletic career, and his social life.

No longer a front-runner for Homecoming King, Ezra finds himself at the table of misfits, where he encounters new girl Cassidy Thorpe. Cassidy is unlike anyone Ezra’s ever met, achingly effortless, fiercely intelligent, and determined to bring Ezra along on her endless adventures.

But as Ezra dives into his new studies, new friendships, and new love, he learns that some people, like books, are easy to misread. And now he must consider: if one’s singular tragedy has already hit and everything after it has mattered quite a bit, what happens when more misfortune strikes? 

Robyn Schneider’s Severed Heads, Broken Hearts is a lyrical, witty, and heart-wrenching novel about how difficult it is to play the part that people expect, and how new beginnings can stem from abrupt and tragic endings.

Sounds cute - I mean tragic.

Here's my cover:

You can't see the white strip on the left, but oh well!

You know, when I'm not writing, I'm fooling around in photoshop. Finally putting my horrible skills to some use! If you'd like to enter the contest, you can find the information here.

The Diviners by Libba Bray

After reading this book, I felt horrible about my writing. No exaggeration  I really felt down. That is how GOOD this book is. Libba Bray knows how to write 'em.

Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City--and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping, and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is Evie has to live with her Uncle Will, curator of The Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult--also known as "The Museum of the Creepy Crawlies."

When a rash of occult-based murders comes to light, Evie and her uncle are right in the thick of the investigation. And through it all, Evie has a secret: a mysterious power that could help catch the killer--if he doesn't catch her first.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater Review

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her. 

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble. 

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little. 

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

I wrote nothing today.

There. I feel so much better.

WORD COUNT: 0

I did a bit of revising, but unless you count rewriting a single sentence over and over as progress, then sure I wrote some new material. Sure.

But have faith, I did get something done. A book, actually. The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin. Why not post a review? This may be a writing blog, but I am writing YA and I'm sure some famous author mentioned that reading the genre you want to write is just as important as writing.

Why not add book reviews to A Writer's Knot?

EDIT 8/27

This book review can also be found on Bookhemian Rhapsody--a new book blog my friend and I are running. FYI.

If only the book were as gorgeous as the cover.

Mara Dyer doesn’t think life can get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her mysteriously unharmed.
There is.
She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.

Those Things in Our Way

School's about to start. Am I ready? No. But I've never been entirely ready for school. Even if I had answered that question with a "yes" deep down it will always be a "no." A few days ago, my heart was singing "yes" pretty loud. Today, after I spoke with my academic advisor and finished buying the rest of my books, my heart ended up singing an entire different tune. It was more of a scream, really.

Besides the fact that school is such a drag, it's also a top priority. School comes before writing. No matter how much I try to deceive myself, school always outweighs everything else. Even my small tiny job. For the past few years I've stuck to this rule and in the end get either two results:

1. My draft gathers dust and cobwebs.
2. or I end up writing half a book while during the summer I could hardly get past two chapters.

It's strange how that works. Only the extremes respond to school. In general, when there's another upper priority we tend to either let things completely go or holdfast. We rather overdue it then face the loss. I don't know about you, but when I write 50k within two months things never go the way I want. In the end, I usually I run out of steam or track and the things I neglect catch up. All the time and effort I spent seems to go to waste after it sits there for a month or two after. By the time I pick it up again, all that excitement is lost. Along with the motivation.

Point is: rushing can be just as harmful as not doing anything.

That is why this semester I plan to write everyday. One sentence. One paragraph. Even jotting down character arcs or adjustments. As long as I'm progressing, I'll be happy. But I won't rush. Rushing has failed me numerous times. I'm aware that some days I won't be able to write, but as long as I'm aware and plan to write on the weekend or vacation. I'll be okay.

And then there's the whole school priority thing.

Which leads perfectly into my word count update. I had another top priority to take care of, besides school: work.

WORD COUNT: 148

There's still a possibility I'll pick it up later tonight, but my desire to read and finish The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer before I have to dive into three books simultaneously for school is very tempting.