Fulfilling the function: well, depends on what its function is. Finnegans Wake fulfils its function of playing with language to the nth degree. Stackalee fulfils its function of telling the story with utter realism.

For me, good writing in a news story tells you who, what, when, where and how in the first paragraph and goes on to expand those facts. A news feature adds 'why' to those. And good journalistic writing (a rare thing indeed) is direct, un-cliched and grammatical.

Good writing in popular fiction is journalistic writing to tell a story.

Good writing in literary fiction delves deeper, but still tells the story. Literary writers have a tendency to become hypnotised by the beauty of their own language. I've just bought Autumn of a Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and found flashes of great storytelling and linguistic beauty, but mostly play which wasn't too appealing to me. On the other hand, One Hundred Years of Solitude kept me reading all along, with the twists and turns and play.