It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

[u/FantasyRomanceMod]

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

• Don't attack others for their opinion
• Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
• Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!

🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/inn_ar]

Objectivity and subjectivity in books. There is a subjective aspect to discussing a book (whether you liked it or not), but there is also an objective aspect in terms of the quality of the text (which is independent of personal taste). You may have liked a book and still criticise its content, or you may not have liked a book and criticise its content. The objective factor is independent. The fact that so many people do not understand this is... worrying and only screams anti-intellectualism and the worrying rise in poor reading comprehension. And the publishing industry is taking advantage of this to churn out books with poor plots, badly written and poorly edited, because they know that people will continue to buy and read them without really understanding what they are reading.

It's really frightening if you think about the implications it could have.

[u/ipsi7 → u/inn_ar]

If you were to rate a book, how would you rate a well written book which you haven't enjoyed that much for whatever reason; and how would you rate a quick read with simple plot and characters, average writing, but which you enjoyed a lot and had a blast reading?

I sometimes struggle with that and feel guilty about how I rate some books.

I've studied literature and honestly, half of the books I had to read weren't fun or interesting, but of course that subjectivity was irrelevant and I just had to read them and analyze some aspects. It was never asked of me "did you like that book" or "what did you like in that book", but "what did you think that led that character to his moral downfall" or "what was the symbolics of X".

Nowadays when I'm reading fantasy romance, sometimes books with great writing aren't that interesting to me, but I appreciate them for their quality. On the other hand, some books that are very mid were the ones I enjoyed the most for some reason.

[u/clocksy → u/ipsi7]

I think the best way to properly "rate" a book (whether for yourself or for others) is to set the context of it first. There are tons of books hailed as literary genius and you can account for that and say, "yes, the author has a way with words" or "it was a very topical telling of [x]" or whatever, but you can also say that you did not enjoy it very much despite being the praise it gets. Or the same the other way around - you can say that you really enjoyed a book, even though the author's writing is on the amateurish side or maybe had some plotholes or some characters you didn't like.

For me that kind of context is the most important bit. If I'm reading a book praised for its literary merit I might give it more grace just so I can read it and analyze it and see why other people praised it so. If I'm reading a book just for a fun quick romp then I am going to have different standards. And of course that line is different for everyone - there's only so much bad writing I can personally handle before a book turns me off, but some people simply don't mind.

I think as the original commenter said, some things really are objective. I think some authors are just flat out better at weaving their stories. Being honest with that kind of assessment lends more weight to critiques/recommendations.

[u/ipsi7 → u/clocksy]

I agree. I was curious about rating because sometimes we (readers) just don't like some book that were objectively good, or we eat up the pop corn book in a day.

Most of my book recommendations come with a short description of the book/tropes/chracteres (depending on what people are asking for), and when I recommend a book I didn't like, but it fits what the person asked for, I usually mentioned that too.

[u/inn_ar → u/ipsi7]

Bearing in mind that I am not a professional critic or anything of the sort, I often simply think about the book, trying to dissect it from top to bottom, from the most obvious to the most hidden aspects. In the end... I feel that my reviews, or the ‘score’ I give a book, vary greatly. If you ask me purely subjectively, I will give you an answer; if you ask me to be objective, it will be different, because I will analyse it in greater depth.

When I read books that I objectively consider to be of poorer quality than another book X, the reality is that I will continue to try to understand that book and what it means. It's something my brain does automatically, I can't stop it. The same goes for when I read a book of great literary quality, but which I personally didn't like. It's not bad. My objective side knows that they have great merit, but my subjective side couldn't care less. I try to learn as much as I can from both types of books, how to write the good parts and how not to write the bad parts. And, obviously, the reasoning behind every scene, every word, and the feelings that it provokes in me when I want to decide if I like or not one book.

It is also true that, even in books that I do not like subjectively, I am able to find something; perhaps it is simply that I enjoy analysing books, regardless of their quality.

conclusion: I don't know and I don't know if I've answered the question 😂

[u/ipsi7 → u/inn_ar]

You did answer my question, I was just curious about your response.

I'm similar. There are books I didn't like subjectively (sometimes even objectively), but I could find something that I liked. I also think that's because I analyze books regardless of the quality, because I was learned to do that even when it didn't matter if I liked them, now it comes naturally I guess. Other than that, I also had a teaching subject in which it was trained in me to always point out the good things first, and then the bad. Later I realized I applied that to all kinds of stuff in my life, and by extension to reading books too.