Is a story good? Who knows?
While doing research for assignment 3, I came across a book that laid out all of the elements of detective novels extremely clearly. I thought it was fascinating, as I had never seen a genre boiled down so comprehensively before. There was one section in which the author identified some tropes of the detective novel and labelled them as acceptable, overused but okay, or unacceptable. While I agreed with their analysis for the most part, it raised the question of who has the authority to call something good or bad. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but this book seemed to be a textbook for students to understand the genre. When we teach english, should we tell young readers what is considered "good", or should we let them draw their own conclusions? It is tough to teach much about writing without opinion being included, but I feel we should have more of a balance.
https://books.google.com/books?id=FlICAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+technique+of+the+mystery+story&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEnP7_g8PZAhXQs1kKHbVbCz4Q6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=the%20technique%20of%20the%20mystery%20story&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?id=FlICAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+technique+of+the+mystery+story&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEnP7_g8PZAhXQs1kKHbVbCz4Q6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=the%20technique%20of%20the%20mystery%20story&f=false
Telling young readers what is considered a "good" book is probably necessary to some extent, as there are countless books out there for children that really can't be considered literature at all. However, there are also examples of books that are generally viewed as well-crafted literature that many young people despise (The Catcher in the Rye comes to mind). There is probably a happy medium somewhere, so that we can form our own views but also to know what society thinks also.
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