Blog Post 7

A book has to be pretty true in my mind to be considered non-fiction. If it isn’t true in my mind then it probably wouldn’t be true in other people’s minds, which would probably mean that in general it is a lie. Non-fiction is supposed to be true, it can be allowed some leniency when it comes to thinks you can’t get exact or can’t remember correctly. In some cases though where the truth is twisted into a complete lie, that’s when it isn’t acceptable to call the book a non-fiction book. I would start to classify it as a realistic fiction book.

I don’t think half-truths are okay, even if it is a good story. I believe that maybe closer to a 75% truth is more acceptable but still looked down on. If you only tell half the truth than it isn’t non-fiction, it is fiction. Like Seth Greenland said, “You can make allowances in memoirs.” You can make allowances because you can’t remember things, but if you bend a big part of the truth too far, then it could break and it would be considered not real. I don’t think it was okay that James Frey bent the truth that much in his book. This is where I would classify that he bent the truth so much that it broke and turned into a lie.

I think it is necessary to label genres. It helps readers discover if they like certain books better than others and helps them to find books in the same categories. I think it is possible though to have a lot of different classifications of a book and different perspectives of them too. If people want to read a true story then they know exactly where to go in the library to find it. Genres label books so that it is easier for the reader.

Blog Post 6

I don't think that genre fiction is less “worthy” of our school curriculum. In our day and age our writing and style of writing has changed from the past. Just because it is different than it used to be, it doesn’t mean that it is wrong. The popular books these days are the ones that are attention grabbers and aren’t so much the ones with great writing and use of literary terms. If the popular books are the ones that get students reading than they should be used over the classics that are usually painful for the average student to read. When students are forced to read books that they don’t like, they tend to grow up not liking any book because of their bad experiences in school. Schools should be nurturing students so that later in life they will develop good habits. In forcing a student to read a book they don’t like, you are helping them develop a bad habit of not reading books. Books are important to fuel the mind and help develop creativity and imagination. Although genre fiction does have less sophisticated writing they still get the reader to use their imagination and still help to develop their minds. Literary fiction has more literary devices and doesn’t quite focus on grabbing your attention but some people tend to like the meaning behind the words. In either case I believe that the only important factor is that people like what they are reading. Whether it is a classic or a popular genre fiction, as long as it interests you and makes you want to read I see no problem in either book. So as a result, school curriculums should let you choose books off of a popular genre fiction list or a classics list. Although most people would pick off of the genre fiction list it is still good to give students the choice to expand their reading knowledge. This way, students will get to choose a book they like and can develop good reading habits early in life. This could maybe help them be more interested in classics later on in life.

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