Explain what makes a book good. Genre fiction is derided as

File: c18f18cf27e09f3ae4f8aaeca739389e.jpg (20KB, 236x368px) Image search: [Google]

20KB, 236x368px

>>8455388
P R O S E
R
O
S
E

>>8455402
What does that mean to you?

good prose style
thematic depth
literary innovation that isn't overly gimmicky
non-reliance on tropes
great characterization

>>8455441
Sounds reasonable. Let me see if I get this right:
>good prose style
Writing that isn't painfully eloquent for its own sake, but enjoyable to read and is both clever and colorful in its description of the events/place?
>thematic depth
The book's actual meaning, or implied meaning through allegory, that the author conveys about the human condition or some experience?
>literary innovation that isn't overly gimmicky
Trying something new in dialogue, plot or analogy?
>non-reliance on tropes
Avoiding the most common and predictable plotlines/characters/concepts that are constantly reused.
>great characterization
Fleshed out figures in the text that are engaging and not simplified cutouts?

bloom said these were good so i trust him

>>8455388
It is personal preference there is literally no good or bad book

>>8455388
At some point you just... feel it
Now, I'm entirely aware of the terms and the adjectives of literary criticism but at some point you can just feel when a book is bad. It's an intuition that most experienced readers have. That may sound like utter bullshit, and I can give concrete reasons, but at the risk of sounding pretentious I wanted to give maybe a bit of a different answer

>>8455507
I think I understand what you mean. I read Herbert's Dune, and also The Machine Crusade by his son, and the difference was immediate.

>>8455466
yes. especially with characterization. many times during stoner and catch 22 i felt such surges of emotion towards william and yossarian that i had to take a long pause and ruminate on their situations and what they could mean.

>>8455388
I feel that good books have this sort of intangible re-readability. It's hard to explain, but you kind of get the feeling that you know it's good when you read it. It's why a book might be considered a classic, for example. Even within genre fiction you've got some great work by authors like Asimov, for example.