Article Questions

1.) How can classifying books into genres be helpful to readers? How can it be problematic for writers?
Book genres can be helpful to readers when you know what genre you want to read, but not the exact book you want to read. Having a section in the library dedicated to a certain genre can help people pick out books they would like and not find otherwise. However, genres can be hard for writers because they might feel the need to fit into a certain mold. If they're writing a book for a certain genre they might have a good idea for the book but feel as if it won't fit the genre and discard the idea. Also Ursula LeGuin helps back up this idea in her article where she says genres are bad for authors because they might be put into the wrong genre category than what they wanted to be, like Nicholas Sparks feels.

2.) Are popular works able to "great", or does their popularity just show that they're less artistic? 
Yes, they are able to be great. Just because something is popular doesn't mean it can't be artistically good. Popular works are popular for a reason, whether it's the plot or the language or a bit of everything. For example, John Green books. His books are very popular, but they do not lack artistic elements. He has a language different from most writers and his plots are relate-able and keep the reader intrigued. Therefore his great books led to his growing popularity which, of course, has no effect on the books themselves which are great no matter how many readers they have.

3.) Discuss Stephen King's opinion that "manfiction" and "chick lit" give their readers essentially the same thing, Do you agree with him? Why or why not?

I agree with him, especially with the statement "escape and entertainment" which he described as the two things both genres provide for their reader. I think the majority of people read for those two reasons, but they way they want to be escaped and entertained is generally different for men and women. I think the basic outline for want they want is the same thing, just filled in according to gender. For example they both might want romance, but girls want more lovey-dovey slow romance and guys would want it more fast paced. The action in "manfiction" can be compared to the drama in "chick lit", they both keep the readers wanting to read more and keep them engaged in the book.