[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 271 KB, 930x1374, 213951@2x.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15373561 No.15373561 [Reply] [Original]

Should a book, above ANYTHING else, be entertaining?

>> No.15373583

>>15373561
If it’s fiction, that’s probably the point

>> No.15373613

>>15373583
>>15373561
Not always. Some books can have great impact on a person but not be entertaining. Fuck off consooomer.

>> No.15373814

Entertainment is one of literature's functions. Other functions are things like education and moral instruction. People today don't appreciate that things like poetry were technologies used to pass down knowledge. There are poems even as little as hundreds of years old that try to describe what makes a "good" child, and in ancient times poems described the principles of skills or professions.

>>15373613
>Not always. Some books can have great impact on a person but not be entertaining. Fuck off consooomer.
This is actually the most obnoxious view of literature. The idea that literature is, or can be, a tool for social change causes people to clamor for power over it. Generally speaking, literature that is for the purpose of entertainment is a more honest undertaking because its measure of success is clear and lacks the moral gravity and imprecision of trying to execute a literary campaign for achieving social progress. With the latter, not only do you have to know (or believe you know) the right thing to change, you also need to successfully change it - and if you do a bad job you could easily achieve the opposite. With entertainment, you will either entertain people or not, and the market will make its judgement. The argument from academics and others becomes "why won't people stop enjoying themselves and join muh revolution?".

>> No.15373825

>>15373561
It should be entertaining, if it's fiction. But it should be more than just entertaining.

>> No.15373860

>>15373561
not entertaining, but engaging.

>> No.15374099

>>15373814
I was literally talking about textbooks and information books retard. Look at OPs question and then look at your presupposition that all books are literature. Are you mentally impaired?

>> No.15374148

>>15373561
Fiction ultimately should be entertaining. It is storytelling after all; it can trace its origins back to when our ancestors huddled around the communal fire to listen to a wise old person recount tales of what happens beyond the distance or in the far past.

Of course, entertainment should not be the end all be all of this. It should simply be the basis; those ancient tales did serve a purpose after all; such as to teach a moral lesson or explain history. It ultimately should be, as another anon said, also engaging.

>> No.15374247

Half of entire western canon is not something I' call 'entertaining'.

>> No.15374686

If fiction isn't entertaining its trash
If non fiction isn't informative its trash