Post 6

Literary Fiction V. Genre Fiction

In my opinion, I feel like genre fiction is not less “worthy” than literary fiction because many people enjoy reading both genre and literary fiction. I feel like both types of fiction are equally valuable to read. I do not think that genre fiction is less worthy to teach in a school’s curriculum. In fact, I feel that some popular books that are genre fiction like The Hunger Games, Water for Elephants, The Road, and many other contemporary books could be beneficial to students and help students become more interested in reading.  Just reading literary fiction focuses on classic novels like Of Mice and Men or Lord of the Flies and these may not appeal to all readers. I feel that there is a difference between genre fiction and literary fiction because genre fiction is usually easier reading and appeals to a wider audience. I do not feel that their popularity shows less artistic value therefore, I do feel that genre fiction can be a great work.

What should Schools do?

I agree with Readicide and think that schools are ruining reading for kids in schools. Schools take some of the greatest and historically famous books that people have been reading for generations in schools like Romeo and Juliet, The Cather in the Rye, Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mocking Bird, and The Scarlet Letter and tarnish the value of the story by having students memorize characters, storylines, and test on the novel in preparation for standardized exams.  A lot of people might think the books in high school are boring and pointless to read, but in reality, it may be our school systems that are responsible for teaching these classic books in a boring way. The schools should teach the students to enjoy reading and discussing the book instead of just giving kids pop quizzes after the chapters so they can quickly get through the book. A lot of teachers focus on teaching students how to take tests and they don’t really focus on the classic itself. I am not opposed to adding more genre fiction to the curriculum because teachers need to make it fun for the students to read and if this means adding a variety of novels, then I feel this will benefit the students.  I feel that if the classic books like Macbeth or the Great Gatsby were taught in a more interesting manner, then students would appreciate these classics and enjoy reading. Shakespeare‘s Macbeth or Hamlet may be more fun to read in school it students were acting the play out and explaining the book instead of just reading and taking a test. I think that schools could make some of these classic books more exciting to read and also swap out some of the classics and add a few popular books from the best seller list to make reading more stimulating. If schools did add some books from the best sellers list like The Help, the Cinderella Man, or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close then more students would be engrossed in reading and this would ultimately improve reading skills, grammar and literary interest. Schools could teach different writing styles, character development, talk about why these books are on the best seller list, and discuss the uniqueness of these books. A balance of literary fiction and genre fiction would probably suit most of the students better than focusing on one specific type of fiction.