Where Do You Draw the Line Between Commercial and Literary Fiction?

James Parker: “I draw it up the side of the Boston Public Library. I draw it through the middle of Stephen King’s wallet. I draw it right between the frontal lobes of every writer who ever lived.”
Rivka Galchen: “Maybe Commercial Fiction is really great, or maybe it’s great the way a Dorito is great, but Commercial Fiction is in some way consonant with the market. … If, though, we didn’t have the term Literary to protect books of value that ¬aren’t brilliant as commerce, then we would have Melville’s Omoo and Typee but not Moby-Dick.