The 'literary fiction' debate

       I was amused by Brian Platzer's piece at Salon, where he acknowledges: English teacher: I was wrong about Hunger Games, describing how he recommended -- sight unseen, but reputation very much read about -- Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding as "adult 'literary' fiction" worth a teenager's summer reading while.
       Only then did he have a look, only to discover that:

In all the reviews in these publications, Harbach's résumé is foregrounded as if to underline his novel's seriousness, and I am convinced that its success is a product of the literary establishment celebrating a plot-heavy book it can pretend is sophisticated. Read this baseball book, reviewers exclaim, and feel pride in your intellectual labor ! There's nothing wrong with The Art of Fielding if you're merely seeking entertainment, but if you're looking for even a little bit more, look elsewhere. If Suzanne Collins had attended Harvard, founded n+1, and written essays about environmentalism and David Foster Wallace, her book could have been considered equally worthy of critical and intellectual respect. Which is all to say: The Art of Fielding is a simplistic children's book in a grown-up costume.

       I haven't read either The Hunger Games or The Art of Fielding, but am certainly more curious about the former than the latter. Sure, while the Melville connection speaks vaguely in Harbach's favor, the protagonist comparison of nubile-world-saving-teen v. gay-baseball-players tips the scales mightily in favor of the Collins. More importantly, however, all that 'review-acclaim' for the Harbach always struck a very unconvincing note with me: nothing about this book, beyond the hype, sounded (or sounds) in the least interesting. (The Hunger Games doesn't sound like great writing either, but the story is intriguing enough to make me curious.)
       So I enjoy the superficial validation in Platzer's observations such as:

The Art of Fielding isn't immoral or dangerous; it's simply not a book that adults, or teenagers seeking more than plot, should read. If the literary establishment wants our teenagers to fall in love with literature, it must stop cynically writing and imprudently reviewing books like The Art of Fielding as though they were examples of adult literary fiction. There is nothing worth thinking about in it -- fancy word choice, sure, but no language that delves into what it means to be human.

       Ah, yes, that foolish 'literary establishment'; I'd really love to encounter it some day ..... (But, yeah, he's right: let's see more coverage of actual "examples of adult literary fiction", and let's not treat the other stuff as if that's what it was.)