Chick-lit, the pinkest lit to trash

The Columbia Chronicle Online covered a chick-lit panel discussion, at a bookstore in Chicago. I'm rather intrigued by the serious thrashing that the idea of chick-lit is taking from various high-minded literati. I say "idea of chick-lit" because I'm of the belief that the variety of chick-lit available is way beyond what any of the critics are aware. Jess from Bookslut.com is a huge chick-lit hater (CLH for short), and paints all the genre with a huge #10 crayon (anything but pink).

"You should be sort of ashamed of "chick lit" because it's bad," she says.

I like the "sort of" modifier. Not sure why it's there and exactly what "sort of ashamed" means, but I'm wondering if its code for "my book was passed over for a story about a woman in the city and the cover sports for a closetful of heels, all tastfully adorned in pink."

Sigh.

I suppose there will always be people that are too "smart" for chick-lit (because we ALL know it's just fluffy, bubble-gum with no sort of redeeming value whatsoever).

Sigh.

I suppose I'll crawl back into my pink poka-dotted cave where I write with my heart pen and stare at ancient copies of David Cassidy in Tiger Beat, and Hello-Kitty watches over me while I write in big loopy letters, and of course, dot each 'i' with a heart.