Literature or Fiction?

I always have a gripe about how bookstores usually do not make the distinction between literature and popular fiction. It seems to be such an insult to shelf literary classics and “chic-reads” and the pulp fluffs under the same section vaguely titled “Literature and Fiction.” It’s unfortunate that we’re at an unreaderly time in which all people read are Oprah Book Club picks and these inexperienced readers are deprived of the mentality to discern the meaning laden under the ordinary speech.

I think literature transforms and intensifies ordinary language to the extent that it deviates systematically from daily speech. One distinguishing factor between literature and popular fiction is the presence of literary devices. The difference between reading Crime and Punishment and The Da Vinci Code is that the literary language in the former achieves an estranging effect that paradoxically brings one to a fuller, more intimate possession of experience.