4chan archive /lit/ (index)
2012-09-24 12:26 3003064 Anonymous (vincent-van-gogh-paintings-from-arles-22[1].jpg 400x318 56kB)
How do you judge whether a book is good or not? Is it a calculated conclusion, or just how you feel about it?

1 min later 3003069 Anonymous
>Jay Gatsby on shrooms.jpg

5 min later 3003079 Anonymous
>>3003069 Heh. 9/10 would read your comment again

10 min later 3003092 Anonymous
>>3003064 Like food. Feels, but usually I can put those feels into words pretty well. As long as it's poetry or fiction of course, non-fiction is often more a matter of getting the information I want in a way that is not horrible.

23 min later 3003119 Anonymous
It's basicly how you feel about it. This feeling is not devoid of reason as your background and your context will shine through your judgement, but "calculated conclusion" is a bit of a stretch. If one has to calculate wheter a book (or movie or anything) is good or not, then I wouldn't trust this man's opinion.

1 hours later 3003284 Anonymous
Well, if it works, it works. On the other hand, there are standards to what is good literature that any writer should at least know: 1. Its a show, not a tell. If it ever wants to teach its reader and make a point, it does so indirectly. After all, the sublime lies in what is not said. 2. Le mot juste, or knowing the right words. 3. IT HAS TO HAVE DEPTH, be it on an emotional or an intellectual level. If it doesn't, how can anyone be touched by it? 4. Universality. nuff said. Although, personally, I would also consider a work that is true enough to a particular culture or society. 5. Authenticity. And I don't mean Originality. Hardly anything is original anymore. What I mean is, it has the authors own "brand" of fiction using particular combinations, no matter how derivative it looks.

1 hours later 3003319 Anonymous (1344059150968.jpg 513x429 20kB)
>>3003284

2 hours later 3003452 Anonymous
>>3003284 This. Indeed.

1.074 0.095