I have a question

[swatkat]

A real, serious question.

Tell me, what, exactly, does make a book 'deep' and 'meaningful'? What? What does it have to contain to qualify? What makes a book 'good'? What makes it 'well-written'? I've tried and tried, but my feeble brain can't seem to work this out (and I may have had too much to drink. BFFs rock. *hic*). Surely most of you have read the HP books - some of you even have a BA (*gasp*). Can somebody please help?*

*In case you don't know what I'm talking about, go here.

Comments

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Nothing makes a book deep or meaningful. The deepness and meaningfulness are in the mind of the reader. Goodness, similarly, is entirely subjective.

As for well-written: avoiding grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, or confused sloppy writing with awkward sentence structure, combined with original ideas and/or original phrasings.

All that said, while I love the HP books, I don't consider them deep, meaningful, or even exceptionally good. They're fun, yes, but not great literature.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

subjective

A keyword that most people seem to forget, unfortunately. :/

Not sure if I'll call them great either, but yeah, pretty good literature as far as I'm concerned. This particular post, however, just made me cranky...

Swatkat

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Agree 100% with the previous poster. What you like is good enough.

And how full of shit was that essay?

[plazmah.livejournal.com]

Also agreeing with the first poster.

Gotta love the wankery ;)

[jaybee65.livejournal.com]

That poster is an idiot. Woe, that an author would actually build her books around -- heaven forbid -- a central plot idea!

[dreamer-marie.livejournal.com]

I wonder if that essay was in earnest or if it was a troll who wanted to see fandom throth at the mouth.

[swatkat24.livejournal.com]

I considered that - if it *is* a troll, wow. Just wow.

Swatkat