I've never made much distinction between writing that's meant simply to entertain and Literature. I write to entertain, but to me, part of entertaining is to give readers something to think about. Intellectual stimulation's good fun.

Not everyone sees the relationship between fun and Literature. To many, Literature is Art and Art is a horse of an entirely different color. Preferably somber.

Art is serious. Entertainment is frivolous.

One day during college I got into a music discussion with a friend. He didn't think my favorites, the Kinks, were art. The music was too...commercial...too happy. Or at least not unhappy enough.

He had just finished describing to me how he'd spent a recent evening playing a Jethro Tull album. He reckoned Aqualung was art.

How did he define "art," I wondered?

He pursed his lips in thought. "If I read something, or listen to something, and it makes me feel like shit -- that's art."

I guess by that definiton Aqualung is Art. Particularly if you put on headphones, turn the volume up all the way and listen for five hours until your ears bleed