Literature

Discuss how to discern genuine quality from exploitative storytelling. Gratuitous sadness in movies and books is a contentious issue, with some works blurring the line between genuine emotion and exploitative storytelling. To determine if a movie or book is truly good or just trauma porn, readers and viewers can look for key indicators. Examining the intent behind the portrayal of sadness, evaluating the depth and complexity of character development, and considering the impact on the audience’s emotional well-being are crucial factors to consider. For example, novels like "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara and the 2023 movie "Close" by Lukas Dhont, have sparked debates on the fine line between authentic emotional storytelling and gratuitous trauma exploitation. Understanding these nuances can help discern between quality storytelling and sensationalized trauma porn.

Fahrenheit 451 focuses on the burning of books. In this fictional world, the owners of books and their homes are burnt and book ownership is seen as the root of unhappiness within society. During the period of the Enlightenment, books were a driver of change as new works like Thomas Paine’s Common Sense shaped ideas like liberty for the American public and led to American independence. More people read than did anything else during this period of change and political foundation for Western democracy. How is the act of reading linked to revolution in books like Fahrenheit 451 and what does this tell us about the importance of reading for the modern era?

Any Alice Munro fans out there? It is due time to honour her memory with an article on her mastery of the short story genre. Your article could focus on one aspect of her story telling. For example:

Her narrative techniques.
The Nobel Prize committee characterised her writing thus: "A brief short story can often cover decades, summarising a life, as she moves deftly between different periods. No wonder Alice Munro is often able to say more in 30 pages than an ordinary novelist is capable of in 300. She is a virtuoso of the elliptical and … the master of the contemporary short story."
What techniques does she use to create scope, depth and complexity in a short space of 30 pages?

Her characters.
To quote the Nobel Prize presentation speech again, "Munro writes about what are usually called ordinary people, but her intelligence, compassion and astonishing power of perception enable her to give their lives a remarkable dignity – indeed redemption – since she shows how much of the extraordinary can fit into that jam-packed emptiness called The Ordinary."
In particular, Munro writes about women and family relationships. What kinds of female characters end up in her stories? What do they have in common? What about her characters that leaves an impression on the reader?

Her favourite themes.
Are there certain major themes that emerge across the large number of her stories? What are they? Did her treatment of the themes change over the decades of her career and did they reflect changes and transformations of Canadian society?

You could do a thematic or character study across the corpus of her works, or offer a literary analysis of one or two particular stories.

Namjoon’s Book Club has become a notable aspect of BTS’s public image, showcasing the group’s interest in literature and intellectual pursuits beyond music. This topic explores the significance of the books read by BTS members, particularly leader RM (Kim Namjoon), and their influence on the group’s creative process, worldview, and public persona. It delves into how BTS’s promotion of reading has inspired fans to engage with literature, fostering a community of readers among the fandom. Analyzing the titles recommended by BTS and their themes, this topic examines how literature has played a role in shaping the group’s identity and connecting with fans on a deeper level. Additionally, it discusses the broader implications of BTS’s advocacy for literacy and education, both within the fandom and in society at large. Through Namjoon’s Book Club, BTS not only expands their artistic horizons but also encourages a culture of intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning among their audience.

In multiple interviews Moshfegh notes how she explored third person narration as a technique in her novel Lapvona. Compared to her other works that focused primarily on the internal experiences of a single character how did this change in narrative style affect the overall tone of the work and how does the narrative voice develop into a character itself. One could explore how the work contrasts the individual against the collective, moving from the experince of a single character to the experience of Lapvona as a whole not only for the characters but for the reader as well. There is also a tension with the narrative voice’s interpretations and the characters subjective experiences. This can particularly be seen in the moments of miscommunication, where the absence of understanding contrasts with the third person expanded view. This can perhaps be seen as contributing to the dark humor of the story. Moments of humor arise in part by the expanded view of the reader due to the narrative voice where the absurdity of some events becomes clear. Overall the third person narration comes across as a subtle but powerful and permeating influence and an exploration into the direction of this influence can be fruitful for a deeper understanding of the work as a whole.

In stories where some characters are immortal – i.e. living for a very long time without aging – the subject of romance can be a touchy topic. It is hard to find people with shared life experience when everyone else measures life in decades rather than centuries. There is often a question of power imbalance when one side of a relationship is so much older than the other.
On the other hand, an immortal character finding romance with a regular mortal is an example of love bridging gaps. It means the immortal has chosen to care about people, even though he will outlive all of them.
Examine arguments for and against these age-gap romances. Examples include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight, the Immortal and Dupli-Kate from Invincible, Thor and Jane Foster from Marvel, and more.

With the growing popularity of platforms like TikTok, micro-communities like BookTok are influencing the reading/publishing industry. A recent example of this is Rebecca Yarros’ ‘Fourth Wing’ which released in April 2023. The sequel to this, Iron Flame, was released in November 2023. This is an unusually short time line for traditionally published work and has lead to some quality issues. A vast amount of readers have reported issues with quality in terms of printing (i.e. whole chapters missing, headers missing, etc) but also in terms of writing (lack of editing or depth in plot).

Is the publishing industry changing? Is it attempting to mimic the quick release model of indie authors in order to exploit the market and make more money?

Recently, a lot of books have been making it onto the infamous banned books list in America, due to containing such themes as "strong female leader" in the case of Wizard of Oz, "racism", especially with children’s books that tend to point to the systemic nature of racism in America, and of course, "sexuality and gender" that basically gets slapped on anything that even remotely hints at an LGBTQ relationship or gender expression outside of the cisgender spectrum. Most of these entries to the ever-growing ban list seem to be coming from conservative areas. It might be good to take a small sample of the banned book list from the past 2 years or so and see how it would compare to, say a European banned books list, if the idea of a banned books list isn’t something that is wholly limited to America in the first place, and see if there are any overlapping topics between the lists to see what trends might exist cross-culturally.

If this cross-examination is not possible, the topic taker could instead talk about whether or not book bans should exist, and the reasons why they do, and could choose to take a few selections from the banned books list and make an argument as to whether or not the themes presented in the literature truly merit a spot on a banned books list.

Banned Books list for America: (link)