Blog Post #7

Women's Fiction. When I read that in the article, " Speak Out On Franzen Feud: 08/26/201" I had to stop and think for a moment. Since when was "Women's Fiction" a thing? It was interesting to see that it was a way to describe a genre of books.

When, in the article, it talks about popular fiction being over looked, critically, Weiner basically says that women writing is typically romance or "a beach book" meaning that stereotypically they can't write other genres. That's probably why JK Rowling went by that name because she believed that people wouldn't view her work.

Picot says that "...there are a lot of readers who would like to see reviews that belong in the range of commercial fiction rather than making it the blanket assumption that all commercial fiction is unworthy." And to be honest, I agree with her. Having a wide variety and dispersion catches the eyes of all kinds of readers and not just certain ones, making things unfair.

Not only does it effect the authors it affects the reader's going to these websites to get their information on what books to read. For me, I try to see all types of book genres before I make a decision on the book or the genre I want to read. "It's not universal. The Washington Post...used to do the widest reviews..." Why can't they continue to do wider reviews instead of narrowing it down to certain genres or authors.

As literary critic Sarah Seltzer says, "writing across gender may be harder, require more research and humility. We may fail or get 'called out' for letting our biases show, or being ignorant. But the attempt at understanding, empathy, and inhabiting the soul of someone whose life experience is not ours, helps us grow as writers, and people too." But we must respect and give support to those authors who can pull it off or try to. Female authors writing with a male perspective seem to do far better than them writing from a male perspective. Take JK Rowling for example. Being a female author of fantasy and those novels she accomplished more with the Harry Potter series and the Cormoran Strike trilogy than Stephanie Meyer with Twilight or Veronica Roth with Divergent.

Blog Post #6

Movie and Book adaptation I chose was The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. When I read the book I judged it based off the book before it: The Maze Runner. I shouldn't have done that well because I hate it when I compare it to another book in the set because of course they're not all the same and they won't have the same expectations.

The sequel follows Thomas and his Gladers as they escape a facility that they thought was safe and into "the scorch," a sandblasted, barren wasteland of danger and creatures called Cranks. As they attempt to find safety with a group called "The Right Arm," they meet some frenemies, run into deadly storms, try to avoid being infected by a disease called "the flare," and all the time, they are trying to slip from the grasp of the people who captured them in the first place: WCKED

When I read The Scorch Trials, I loved how Teresa wasn't in it till the end. I never liked her. I understood that she played a vital role in book 1 but there was no point to her character after she delivered the message to Thomas. In the book, Teresa is upset about something. She tells Thomas that he and the others need to stay away from her. She isn’t present very much after that. She spends her time communicating with Thomas telepathically, pretending to betray him. She’s actually working with WICKED and Aris. In the movie this doesn’t happen. 

When I saw the movie, I was really upset because they had her in the movie more than what was written.

In the book, Thomas ends up getting locked in a gas chamber but in the movie, it didn't happen. I was eager to see how that was played out but I never got to.

     Overall I loved both. If you put the movie aside from the book then it was pretty amazing. The changes in the movie from the book I thought made more sense as it was easier to play out. In writing, pretty much anything and everything can happen but in movies or TV series only so much can be put out and still seem realistic. I wasn't disappointed when I saw all these changes. I was excited as to see what would come next in the last of the trilogy.


"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." Winston Churchill