Samael13 t1_jcg317j wrote on March 16, 2023 at 4:06 PM

I've seen it both ways, tbh. I've seen legit criticism dismissed out of hand because "you don't get it..." and I've seen people whose criticism didn't seem very legit, to me, because they clearly didn't get the book.

> In fact, if the book is supposed to shine attention on an important subject, there should be even more emphasis on good research and strong writing to support the message.

Meh; I don't know about this. "If your book is trying to tackle an important subject, you should be held to a higher standard than other books" is weird, personally.

All that said, I think that being empathetic to other readers is valuable. A book that I might not enjoy but that clearly resonates with a group because it tackles discrimination against that group (for example) might deserve a little bit of a kinder critical eye, I think. Like, if it's really resonating that much with people who have actually experienced what the book is talking about, maybe there's something there? I might not like the writing style as much as some other book, but that shouldn't prevent me from appreciating what the book is doing and how it's finding its audience, and maybe it should inspire me to look more closely at why it's resonating with folks?

JohnTaylorson OP t1_jcg5hoh wrote on March 16, 2023 at 4:22 PM

That's a very good response, thank you. I get what you mean about if a book has resonated with a number of people it must be doing something right. I should have stressed- and might edit- in my original question is the importance of the fundamental writing itself- the structure, composition, language used, research of the subject matter etc rather than the plot itself. I suppose popularity itself if a win, if it gets people fired up about something.

That said, my comment regarding the greater importance of strong writing for books on 'worthy' subjects comes from a couple I've read that tackle tough, emotive, controversial subject matter, but are written so poorly and researched so badly all I can think is "these authors are charlatans who got cut a book deal purely because of the subject matter". To me this seems like the most shameless of scams and does not give the subject the justice it deserves.