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"What I wanted to say was that people should read books which challenge themselves. That the judge of complexity should be they and that it is not up to me to d
by WolfeReader 1y ago
"What I wanted to say was that people should read books which challenge themselves. That the judge of complexity should be they and that it is not up to me to decide what people read."
If you wanted to say that, you would have.
You claim to see people browsing genre fiction in a bookstore as consuming "slop", but now that you're called out on it, you claim that everyone gets to decide for themselves what's challenging? You can't know what is challenging or complicated to those readers. You're being elitist and condescending when you judge people and books this way.
There's actually a pretty easy on-ramp from genre fiction to serious literature. You can take the average Sanderson reader and introduce them to more advanced genre authors like Bradbury, Wolfe, Le Guin, or Asimov. Here, they will find books which challenge the reader to understand the characters, and to reflect on their own society. At that point, the reader is primed for advanced reading - they'll have seen how themes, characters, and events all reinforce each other in interesting ways. And from this, you can introduce the "classics" and the "complex" and the "literary" - they'll be ready.
Where you see pig food, I see a path forward.
- constantcrying 1y agoAre you sure that you read my entire post. Do you really think I would care about the opinions of a slop reader after that.
- WolfeReader 1y agoIt's funny that you are trying to present your overt snobbery as a "realization" you had after "rethinking", when it was already there in your first post in the thread. "If you visit a book store you will also find out that most "readers" are a very niche group, who mostly read genre fiction or crime slop." You are no more judgy or condescending now than you were yesterday.
- constantcrying 1y agoGood. I actually tried walking back the scare quotes in my posts and actively tried defending slop (which you proceeded to attack me for, for some reason), but you are right. I really am judgemental, condescending and elitist, I just wasn't honest with myself. I despise slop, reading for the sake of reading is worthless and the idea of reading as torture inflicted upon oneself seems very appealing.
- WolfeReader 1y agoWhat you (claim you) wanted to say: "What I wanted to say was that people should read books which challenge themselves. That the judge of complexity should be they and that it is not up to me to decide what people read." What you actually said: "If you visit a book store you will also find out that most "readers" are a very niche group, who mostly read genre fiction or crime slop." Perhaps before refocusing on your snobbery, you should educate yourself on language and sentence construction. Maybe something remedial? For there to be such a huge gulf between what you intended to say and what you actually said, is an indication of deficiencies whose correction is beyond what these forums could provide.