Re: A little of this, a little of that.

Of course the distinctions are artificial, and only seem concrete because of Publishing conventions and ( to a lesser degree ) audience expectations. I've seen Jonathan Lethem filed almost everywhere possible; except maybe in children's picture books.

That's my point exactly. It is an artificial distinction, and generally a pretentious one from the point of view of literary fiction fans. There are classics in every genre to rival any 'literary fiction' (I'm sure you know them already: 1984, Brave New World, Frankenstein, The Lord of the Rings, The Moonstone, Riders of the Purple Sage to name a few) not to mention classics that do not fit easily into any genre but borrow from them, sometimes pretty liberally (any Gabriel Garcia Marquez book fits here).

I've seen Jonathan Lethem filed almost everywhere possible; except maybe in children's picture books.

I love Lethem's stuff. Of course, you probably already knew I would. ;-)

And, of course, those disparaging "genre fiction" tend to cite the classics of literary fiction, rather than rattling off this months offerings in that publishing category.

Exactly, and again, there are classics (not to mention brilliant underrated works) in every genre, and just as many clunkers in literary fiction as in any other category. It just irritates me when lit fiction people act hoity-toity towards genre fiction. That said, there are also plenty of genre fiction fans who are just as bad about judging others who don't "get" their obsession with Harry Potter or whatever, or who don't share in it. I dislike that attitude no matter where it's coming from.

Classics have the advantage of having been culled from the dross over the centuries. So its hardly a fair comparison. And anyone whose been to a bookstore ( remember them ) recently will find a lot of lightweight reads among the "literary fiction" category. ( Is Jackie Collins undying prose? )

I consider it to be either an uninformed position or a pompous one, given that all genres and categories have about the same amount of diamonds, semiprecious stones, and a whole lot of coal, and because there's no absolute value that can be assigned to any of these in the end. It's simply a matter of preference.