4 ms·
This is a bit of straw man because the author is specifically dismissing certain genres of fiction like romance and thrillers, rather than fiction as a whole.
by nfw2 4y ago
This is a bit of straw man because the author is specifically dismissing certain genres of fiction like romance and thrillers, rather than fiction as a whole.
It's hard to argue that books like The Da Vinci Code, as much I enjoy them, deliver the same sort of commentary on the human condition as something like 1984.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y agoI think it's also worth mentioning that the author is specifically criticizing the motivation of it being #1 on NYT's best seller list (or a similarly vapid thing). I guess there is this line (emphasis mine), which is suggestive of all fiction but, to use your examples, I'm not convinced the author would attribute it to 1984 the same they would to The Da Vinci Code. > There is nothing wrong with reading these kinds of books, but you do not learn anything new (besides who committed the murder).
- elliekelly 4y agoWhat about fiction like American Psycho, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Pride and Prejudice, or The Tempest? Do they not deliver social commentary on the human condition that equals (or maybe even surpasses) 1984? Are you equally dismissive of thrillers and romantic films? Is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy vapid? Was Titanic a froofy waste of film?
- wincy 4y agoI mean we have a word for those books. Books of literary fiction are worth reading. Which is a tautological statement since literary fiction is just a term snobs who don’t read fiction invented for “books that have special artistic merit so I’ll read them even if they’re fiction”.
- nfw2 4y agoI did not call anything vapid nor a waste of time, nor would I, personally, make the same claim as the article author that any sort of literature is without value to society. My point is that the author of the article was a criticizing a specific category of book, so any counter-argument against that criticism should also be specifically about that form. Just saying "fiction as a whole is valuable" seems both obviously true and not relevant to the discussion.
- elliekelly 4y agoI’m not discussing fiction as a whole. All of my examples were specifically from the thriller and romance genres.
- nfw2 4y agoThen, to clarify, I agree with you. My objection was to the argument used by OP, not with the conclusion.
- Aunche 4y agoI think it's less about what you read, but rather how you read it. If you aren't actively trying to challenge yourself with your reading, you're probably not going to learn much from it. You can read easily read 1984 as a thriller, which I suspect is why you get all these bad takes about how "something I dislike anyways" is like 1984.
- Fomite 4y agoI have trouble with both genres being dismissed as not serious or intellectually engaging etc. being two of the ones with predominantly female readership.