Commercial Fiction vs. Literary Fiction

I don’t believe that commercial fiction has any less value than literary fiction. I definitely feel that schools should include commercial fiction in English curriculum. The students would like these kinds of fiction better because they are easier to understand and easier to relate to. One thing I know about students is that one thing they don’t like about what we read in school is the type of writing. Often the books are written in Old English, which is difficult to comprehend. I agree with Melissa Thomas when she says that fastasy fiction “has at least two traits in common with the lasting work of other genres: humor and humanness”. Most of the time this is what is taught in the classroom anyways; this would just be a new twist on it.  Popular works can be just as great as literary fiction, maybe even better. I don’t understand why people think that just because a book is popular, it’s not as good. More people are reading it, not less! I agree with Leavitt  when she says “A good book is a good book…”. I don’t care how someone categorizes a book or how many people are reading it; it is still just a book to me. People need to realize this fact.  No one person can decide if a book is good or not, every individual needs to read the book themselves to know whether they should consider it good. It’s a personal opinion type of question so no one else can answer for you. We should want children to read books because it allows them to increase their own creativity. Also, it is an important part of learning. You almost always have to read something to learn anything. I believe that people should think about literary fiction and popular fiction equally. Everyone should read what they like and not try to say which type of books are best; decide for yourself and only yourself!

The Help: Book to Movie

I think that making the Help into a movie could be rather challenging. There are many subplots that complement each other in the book, but would take up too much time on the screen. One of the subplots I feel could be cut out would be Stuart, Skeeter’s boyfriend. While he adds a good element to the story, he is not essential, nor the most interesting. Another thing that could be cut would be Yule May and her twin boys. In the book, Yule May was sent to jail for stealing after Miss Hilly wouldn’t give her a loan so her boys could go to college. This spurred other maids to come and tell their stories to Skeeter, but I think that it would be easy enough to say that they just changed their minds. A third event that could be removed would be Hilly’s last scene with Skeeter when she threatens her and tries to tell Skeeter’s mother what has been happening. For the movie to convey the same point as the book I believe that it would be necessary to include Constantine’s story with her daughter. It would do great as a flashback by Skeeter’s mother. Another scene I feel important to include is when Minny tells Miss Celia about the chocolate pie. This showed just how much she came to trust her. A third thing I believe essential to the plot is the Benefit. This scene showed the coldness the town felt towards Celia and Skeeter because of Hilly. The Help would be challenging to adapt to the big screen, but completely worth it!