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Sumtimesagr8notion t1_jeegd85 wrote

Reply to comment by TheSSChallenger in Why do some books/authors get away with "purple prose" by [deleted]

Idk I enjoy prose like that. If I have to slow down a little and really focus, it's usually an enjoyable book. Nabokov, McCarthy, Pynchon, Joyce, all fantastic authors.

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Griffen_07 t1_jef0qdx wrote

Yes but that also goes back to intent. There is a fashion in certain literary circles to make it so a work has to be picked apart and footnoted to make sense. This is stuff like Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake that are not made to be enjoyed. However, when you get to non-standard form and style while trying to be a book sold for entertainment that it is purple.

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Sumtimesagr8notion t1_jef1gg1 wrote

Ulysses is made to be enjoyed lol. I get what you're trying to say though. I've just never came across a book that I didn't enjoy because the prose was too complicated.

Where do you draw the line between books that are for standard entertainment and books that aren't? Should all genre fiction be written as plain as possible?

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Griffen_07 t1_jef492x wrote

I think it goes back to the intent of the author. If the book matches the niche the author is aiming at then it is fine. Commercial fiction should include the full range of expression from simple to complex. The lines are different for an author that is deliberately aiming for a non-commercial thing.

Readers will self-sort to the kind of books they like.

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