I've felt incredibly validated and vindicated lately because I've seen a lot of people speaking against literature (or other form of narrative) elitists.
I despised english class as a kid because all my teachers were the most insufferable hypocrites and condescending dispshits imaginable. all my life I've heard "literature is a way for you to express yourself! it's a freeing art form!"(1) , but then have 90% of people who say that suddenly turn around and outright ridicule anything they thought was not "doing literature correctly".
It's also really easily visible online, like how there are so many youtube channels dedicated to telling you what not to do, or what literature sins to never do. like... literature sins??? fucking really???? it's rarely ever constructive, usually very dismissive, and almost always condescending - as if it's an elite club, and as if it's offensive to them to dare write something that doesn't meet their arbitrary standards.
for example, I've heard time and again that novels need exactly one protagonist and they must follow the motherfucking hero's journey. the goddamned hero's journey is worshiped like a fucking god in some circles and it genuinely baffles me. people will even take stories intended to not follow the hero's journey and bend over backwards to try and rationalise how "it still follows the hero's journey anyway!!!"
ALSO for example, they're the kind of dipshits who say "use 'he or she!!!' singular 'they' is incorrect!!!" and I don't even need to elaborate on that one.
anyway, I don't have the words or the spoons to convey all my feelings about this. there's a shitty culture around writing that sets arbitrary standards, then actively moralises them and treats outliers as reprehensible - as if they're inherently inferior. and it drives. me. up. the fucking. WALL. I'm a writer, both recreationally and professionally. I make money by writing, and I genuinely enjoy writing stories for myself. But I despise fucking literature cops who always find a way to make it about them, how they're correct and everyone else is laughably bad and deserving of ridicule. but I've seen stuff around, even here on cohost, that calls out their bullshit, and it makes me feel relieved that I'm not alone in feeling how absurd they are.
(1) literature is genuinely a way to express yourself and it can be extremely freeing! I love writing when it's about things I want, and when it's in a way I want. however, it's nothing more than a chore at best, or a punishment at worst, when the literature cops have anything to say about it.