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Pro tip: Our book club debate about genre fiction vs literary fiction got way better after one change
I run a book club over at the Maplewood Public Library and we used to argue every meeting about whether genre fiction counts as 'real' literature. Last month I suggested we read a sci-fi book (The Left Hand of Darkness) and a literary novel back to back. The discussion afterward was way more interesting because people had concrete examples instead of just opinions. Has anyone else tried pairing different genres like this to settle a debate?
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hannah24014d ago
That's a smart way to handle it. Seems like having the actual books to argue about made everyone less defensive and more curious.
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cole_walker2613d ago
Oh man, that's genius and I'm a little embarrassed I've never thought of it. I mean, my book club once spent 45 minutes arguing about whether a romance novel could be 'deep' and we literally just shouted opinions at each other until someone spilled wine on the copy. Maybe it's just me, but having two actual books to compare makes everyone stop being so defensive and actually listen. I bet the sci-fi pick helped too, since people have less baggage about it being 'high art' or whatever.
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