Literate fiction has always been, to me, the most powerful and thought-inducing form of reading. My first favorite novel was Lord of the Flies, in the third grade. Literature seems to carry not just the intellect of the message, but the resonant emotion as well.

I've published a few short stories in various publications. It's been nice. But I've got an opportunity to submit a manuscript to an interested publisher, now, and I'm really excited about the opportunity. But it's made me more aware of how unbelievably little literature sells, especially up against nonfiction.

Lord of the Flies vs. Billy Crystal's autobiography = no contest.

Of course I'm going to do it, and love it, but seriously...

It seems blatantly obvious that literature has such enormous potential to provide ideas or information...suck unlimited opportunity for growth...that it makes most nonfiction look like a Powerpoint presentation. But then, I suppose most people's understandings of lit anymore are two-fold:

1. They've tried fiction (via Stephen King or The Da Vinci Code), and match that to lit, and assume that there's nothing more to it.

2. They had to read Mark Twain in school, before they were ready (and before most of them could read well enough to do so), and it's been beaten out of them.

Either way, people suck. Invisible Man owns on any nonfiction historical account of America's racist past, ever.

dude I hear ya, great points and to end it with Invisible man....