The Case for Reading Fluff

Anne Louise Bannon is the author of the Old Los Angeles and the Operation Quickline series. You can find out more about her on the Blackbird writers website, and buy her books there, too.

In my latest Old Los Angeles novel, Death of a Proper Bostonian, one of the asides protagonist Maddie Wilcox makes is that her brother-in-law is a highly regarded, serious poet. Don’t feel bad. Ambrose Stanton is completely fictional. But Maddie notes that while Ambrose’s serious poetry is esteemed, he also writes lighter, humorous pieces that are largely ignored, and he confesses to Maddie that the humorous poems were far more difficult to write.

Much of that observation is based on my own feeble efforts at writing humor. I acknowledge the joy and craft in the lighter fare of the literary world, and I often prefer it when I choose books to read. These days, I want something that will make me laugh, lift my spirits, and not require every ounce of my attention.

I suspect some of my general preference for lighter reading matter may be a reaction to my mother, an English teacher who read all the “right” books and gushed over metaphors and beautiful imagery that I found as boring as the twenty-ninth straight day of dorm cafeteria oatmeal.

Then there is my general contrarian nature. Tell me that I’m supposed to like, let alone be awed by, some brilliance, and you can bet I probably won’t. A guarantee that I’ll be amused is pretty much a guarantee that I won’t be. And telling me that I absolutely must read/watch something is as good as telling me not to bother.

That doesn’t mean I won’t like something everyone else thinks is good. It’s just that it’s not a given.

So, it really annoys me when literary elitists look down their long, bony noses at lighter reading. Not only is it much harder to write light literature well, but it’s also a lot more pleasurable to read. And who doesn’t need pleasure in their lives right now?

I don’t fret about not turning out “serious literature.” I can say more about anti-immigrant prejudice with a few well-placed comments about the “filthy Irish” than I can by writing a four-hundred-page tome that few will read because it’s just too heavy or sad. As a reader, I’ve learned more about people unlike me through reading light fiction than through reading erudite literature.

If you genuinely enjoy more serious fiction, that’s fine by me. I won’t judge you. But before you judge me, check out some Dorothy L. Sayers. Kick back with one of the Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters. Or Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. Or Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow series. You might find that gentler silliness is just what you need when the rest of your world is going to hell, and you might appreciate that there is no small trick in turning out that kind of relaxed, pleasurable reading.

And as I already said, who doesn’t need more pleasure in their lives right now?

Author Anne Louise Bannon’s husband says that his wife kills people for a living. Bannon does mostly write mysteries, including the Old Los Angeles Series, the Freddie and Kathy series, and the Operation Quickline series. She has worked as a freelance journalist for magazines and newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. She and her husband, Michael Holland, created a wine education blog, and she co-wrote a book on poisons. She and her husband live in Southern California with an assortment of critters. Visit her website at AnneLouiseBannon.com.