When I talk to students today, the reading that inspires them to study literature often isn’t what older critics would call “literary.” Instead, they’re inspired by categories such as young adult and children’s literature, speculative fiction and horror, thrillers and romance. They want to study transmedia storyworlds where they can experience a favorite franchise across multiple media, novels included. So, if a technology as ancient as the book is going to survive late into the 21st century, perhaps it’s time to reconsider—as rapidly and as radically as possible—how we collectively measure “prestige” among our authors of fiction. The old binaries, whether literary versus popular or highbrow versus lowbrow, now belong to an obsolete historical moment. But history, fortunately, always begins anew.
