Comments on: What is gritty fiction?

By: liliya

liliya — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:20:33 +0000

fiction that sticks in your teeth

By: capt. cockatiel

capt. cockatiel — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:57:44 +0000

Whatever it is, it really doesn’t sound that appealing?

By: meiow

meiow — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:55:07 +0000

gritty is what they called The Outsiders right?

gritty in YA = kids who have to deal with adult stuff in an environment where there is grit. ?

By: eek

eek — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:25:21 +0000

My guess is modern fic about city kids, but without the street cred to be “Urban Fic.”

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:17:03 +0000

I’ve never heard this either! But I’m kind of thinking it might be used as like, books about inner-city minority kids?

By: ClareSnow

ClareSnow — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:12:11 +0000

A long time ago (back in my youth) before emo meant “teenagers sitting in their room cutting themselves” it used to describe music ie. emo music. on diff occasions i heard it used for deftones and modest mouse. i love both these bands, but i couldn’t understand how they could be placed in the same category, unless that category was music Clare likes. then i realised it could be used to mean whatever you wanted it to mean. i have no evidence, but i think “gritty fiction” is the same. perhaps it may even mutate into “fiction written by teenagers sitting in their room cutting themselves”

By: Another Amy

Another Amy — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:47:56 +0000

Well, I’ll take a stab at this one – I’m guessing “gritty fiction” could mean fiction that has more realistic elements or descriptions. Probably meaning details about the parts of life that some might consider to be more rough or dirty. I could see a crime story being described as gritty fiction, depending on the style.

By: mb

mb — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:00:56 +0000

I’m still trying to figure out “urban fantasy,” which as far as I can tell is not about cities…

By: jennifer, aka literaticat

jennifer, aka literaticat — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 06:23:01 +0000

gritty – the opposite of “lyrical”

By: Sarah

Sarah — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:43:15 +0000

Duh, Justine. Gritty means like sooooo worthy.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 00:33:57 +0000

Fiction on sandpaper.

By: E. Kristin Anderson

E. Kristin Anderson — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:44:44 +0000

I haven’t heard the term! I would either interpret it as an alternative term for transgressive writing OR for “serious” literature.

By: lili

lili — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:36:58 +0000

I always thought it was just a new fancy word for what we used to call “issues books”. You know. RAPE. DRUGS. CYBER-BULLYING. No holds barred. But “issues” has become a bit of a dirty word – implies that the writer started with the issue, instead of with a story.

By: lisa

lisa — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:47:29 +0000

Books that inexplicably have soil between the pages?

By: El

El — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:05:48 +0000

Fiction about walking on the beach and getting sand in your shoes.

Okay, maybe not. My first guess would be–fiction that takes a grittier approach, i.e., if you slide into third you describe the feeling of the abrasions, the grit embedded in the elbow, etc. A woman giving birth doesn’t just sit there glowing, breathing hard occasionally, and threatening to strangle the father–she actually *feels the birth.*

Or not.