My MMR for my blog dawg

1. Good vs. Bad The differences between being poorly written and well written

2. Disclaimer: Works of great literature will not necessarily contain everyaspect discussed in this slideshow—but they will successfully employ most of them and/or excel so much at a few that they make up for the lack of another. On the flip side, some poorly written books may do a marginally good job of fulfilling one or two of these requirements—but the point is that they do not do it well enough to make up for the lack of the others.

3. Reading Level A well written piece of literature is not necessarily one with an extremely challenging reading level, it just needs to be the appropriate one for the audience.

4. Good / Bad Lord of The Flies: A book aimed at middle schoolers and written at a middle school level, this book offers depth and symbolism at a lower level to make it attainable to younger readers and helps them grow up to be more capable readers. Twilight: Although it is aimed at a high school audience it’s written at a 4th grade reading level. This is a form of manipulating the audience, these books lure in readers by being quick and easy reads that cater to lazy reading habits and do not challenge readers to become better readers.

5. Original Plot An original and creative idea is important because scamming off other people’s genius is just ridicules, it shows that the author either has no individual talent or hasn’t bothered take the time to develop it.

6. Good / Bad Galapagos: Imagines a future where when humans nearly become extinct except for a small gene pool that contains a non-fatal mutation which, over millions of years, leaves the human race looking oddly similar to penguins. Written almost entirely as back-story this brilliant satire is 100% original. Eragon: There is nothing original in this book it just gleans ideas from other popular fantasy books like The Lord of the Rings or The Wheel of Time and has an obvious Star Wars influence...which is what happens when you have a 15 year old kid writing a book. (I’ll post links with direct examples of his bootlegging of plot lines and such)

7. Symbolism & Depth There has to be something more; a lesson, a moral, an undercurrent of meaning beneath the surface of the writing, without it literature has no reason and is only words strung together.

8. Good / Bad Animal Farm: This book is not to be taken literally as a children’s story with talking animals, it’s a politically charged novel with a lot going on below the cute cartoon animal faced mask. Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging: Written as teenage girl’s diary simply to be entertaining, it’s brain candy—not meat and potatoes.

9. Research Authors who really care about their work do everything they can to make it as realistic and accurate as possible. This sort of dedication to their work shows that the author did not just run with the first idea that came to mind when they found themselves too deep in a plot hole.

10. Good / Bad The Clan of the Cave Bear: Years upon years go into the research for these books, because of this the series is incredibly well researched but does not read like a text book. Twilight: (too good of an example to pass up, so yeah, I’m gonna use it again) At every point that the author attempts to create a slightly complex plot or a twist she found herself unable to write her way back out of it and ended up making up crappy loopholes and cop-outs because she had no idea how to accurately fix the situation. (specific examples found in The Rant).

11. Impact Great books (that are well written and successfully conveyed a deeper meaning) create change. It’s as simple as that.

12. Good / Bad Uncle Tom’s Cabin: It can be argued that this book was a major player in starting the civil war and lead to the abolition of slavery. A Series of Unfortunate Events: Yeah it’s interesting and keeps you enthralled by stringing you along with puzzling plot twists that NEVER get answered—but in the scheme of things they didn’t change a thing.

13. Sustainablilty Great literature will stand the test of time to become the classic literature of the future.

14. Good / Bad Beowulf: Written between the 8th and 10th century this epic has stood the test of time. Why? Because it successfully fulfilled the requirements of good literature previously mentioned (okay maybe not “research” in this case, but you get the point). Eat Pray Love: After the trend for self realization in our culture has passed and we no longer care to read about some other random person’s journey to happiness and peace, this book is donezo.

15. Thanks! So that was my clarification of good and bad literature, hope you found it entertaining if not helpful.

16. Sources for Images:(in order from beginning to end and left to right) http://smallbusiness.uprinting.com/teamwork-in-business-what-to-learn-from-the-chilean-mine-rescue/ http://www.newmoonmovie.org/2010/11/lets-re-read-twilight-together-2/ http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/v/kurt-vonnegut-jr/galapagos.htm http://abode-of-books.blogspot.com/2009/10/eragon-by-christopher-paolini.html http://www.lowdensitylifestyle.com/the-return-of-the-classic-books-in-one-minute-or-less/ http://walkinginpublic.wordpress.com/category/book-reviews/ http://whataboutthatbook.wordpress.com/tag/historic/ http://www.epubbooks.com/book/104/uncle-toms-cabin http://www.kosmix.com/topic/the_wide_window http://www.lib.chattanooga.gov/bib/graphic_novels.html http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/eat_pray_love