Post by account_disabled on Dec 27, 2023 16:51:36 GMT 10
According to a study conducted by psychologists at the University of Oklahoma1 , readers tend to appreciate those literary genres that reflect their personal values. Researchers have reported that readers of literary fiction (I assume they mean so-called mainstream), fantasy, and science fiction lean toward a more permissive moral style. Does this make sense to you? To me, however, it seems silly. But those researchers continue down the same path, reporting that, in contrast, readers of romance, mystery, and thriller novels tend to adhere to a more rigid sense of right and wrong. In romance novels, according to them, there are "clearly identified heroes and heroines", while in detective stories and thrillers "good and evil are unequivocally distinguished".
Our readings and moral values I normally read thrillers, detective stories, science fiction - it's been a long time since I read fantasy, but in the past I have read many novels of that genre - yet I have always been for very strict rules, absolutely against the permissiveness that is rampant today. I don't love literary fiction at all, but I love the Special Data classics, which are basically the mainstream of the past. According to those psychologists I don't have clear ideas, then, but I actually believe that they told them one stupid thing after another. What does reading have to do with one's personal moral values? It has something to do with it, in a certain sense, just like watching films has to do with it, and here I could give the example of a cult film like A Clockwork Orange , which I stopped watching after about 20 minutes.
If I can't identify with the protagonist of the film, who only makes me angry, I can't enjoy that film. So yes, we can say that a novel, like a film, is linked to our moral values, but a narrative genre certainly is not. A story like A Clockwork Orange might not be set in the present day, but instead be a fantasy or science fiction story: I wouldn't read it, even though I appreciate those genres. Literary genres and moral values The argument that those psychologists make about narrative genres, which in themselves are absolutely not linked to our values, is wrong. Romance novels : I don't read them, but I don't think they are characterized solely by heroes and heroines. The Betrothed , a historical novel but also a love story, certainly does not have two heroic figures in Renzo and Lucia. Fantasy : The Lord of the Rings does not invoke anything permissive, it is the classic struggle between Good and Evil, therefore good and evil are "unequivocally" distinguished. Science fiction : it doesn't always deal with worlds very distant from ours.
Our readings and moral values I normally read thrillers, detective stories, science fiction - it's been a long time since I read fantasy, but in the past I have read many novels of that genre - yet I have always been for very strict rules, absolutely against the permissiveness that is rampant today. I don't love literary fiction at all, but I love the Special Data classics, which are basically the mainstream of the past. According to those psychologists I don't have clear ideas, then, but I actually believe that they told them one stupid thing after another. What does reading have to do with one's personal moral values? It has something to do with it, in a certain sense, just like watching films has to do with it, and here I could give the example of a cult film like A Clockwork Orange , which I stopped watching after about 20 minutes.
If I can't identify with the protagonist of the film, who only makes me angry, I can't enjoy that film. So yes, we can say that a novel, like a film, is linked to our moral values, but a narrative genre certainly is not. A story like A Clockwork Orange might not be set in the present day, but instead be a fantasy or science fiction story: I wouldn't read it, even though I appreciate those genres. Literary genres and moral values The argument that those psychologists make about narrative genres, which in themselves are absolutely not linked to our values, is wrong. Romance novels : I don't read them, but I don't think they are characterized solely by heroes and heroines. The Betrothed , a historical novel but also a love story, certainly does not have two heroic figures in Renzo and Lucia. Fantasy : The Lord of the Rings does not invoke anything permissive, it is the classic struggle between Good and Evil, therefore good and evil are "unequivocally" distinguished. Science fiction : it doesn't always deal with worlds very distant from ours.