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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24649
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24649
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There is no universal public opinion of any author. People read of pleasure and for edification. There are various pleasure you can get from reading, and various forms of edification. Some hold that some pleasures are higher than others -- aesthetic pleasure higher than vicarious adventure, for example. Some hold that edification is better than pleasure, or is a higher form of pleasure. Some hold that some forms of edification are better than others.

We esteem those authors who provide the kings of pleasure and/or edification that we value most highly. Since different people rank pleasures differently and rank edification differently, and rank pleasure vs edification differently, they admire different authors.

An argument about whether on author is good or bad or better or worse than another author will often turn out to be an argument by proxy about which pleasure or which form of edification is superior.

Advice about how to write tend to have a similar bias. It is how to write to give a particular kind of pleasure, or how to write to give a particular form or edification. But it is seldom qualified this way because most of the people who give this advice start with the belief that the forms of pleasure and edification they value of (naturally and indisputably) superior to all others and therefor the advice they are giving is universal.

The trick in evaluating any advice to to work out the presumptions behind it. If you agree with those presumptions, they you will likely value the advice. If you don't, you will likely ignore it. (Though possibly it might cause you to rethink your own presumptions, which would probably be a good thing. Even if you don't change you views you will understand them, and alternative views, better.

Original score: 2