#8 - Specific Reference, Must Be True

[KelseyWoods]

I have edited my original post to fix the typos! Must have been at the end of a long night of posting haha. Sorry for any confusion!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi TheKingLives!

Let me refer you to a better forum for this question: https://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/viewt ... 489#p74489

There, Clay describes how answer choice (D) is incorrect because it is only concerned with the number of readers rather than the literary qualities of the work.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[am2gritt]

Hi BlueBalloon,

Thanks for your question. This is a tough one.

Answer choice C is correct because it refers to the idea - against which the author of this passage is advocating - that a work of literature can be entertaining or great but not both. This dichotomy seems, based on the author's attitude toward it, to be well-entrenched among literary critics, even though it has little merit. The fact that it is so widespread, though, is what leads the author to call it "familiar" and "false" in line 6.

Answer choice A is incorrect because nowhere in the passage does the author discuss a definition of "great works of literature" that is based upon their fantasy or whimsy; the attitude described as "familiar," then, can't mean such an attitude.

Answer choice B is incorrect because the familiar attitude to which the author is referring holds that literature cannot be both great and entertaining, as the collection of tales mentioned in B is described.

Finally, answer choice D is incorrect because the author is not basing his or her evaluation of the works greatness on the number of people who have read but instead on other factors, like "strikingly good writing" and "convincing character descriptions."

Does that help to clarify the reference?

Hi!

I have all the post on this thread, but I admit I am still confused on why (D) is incorrect.

I selected (D) because I thought it displayed the author's disagreement that critics are mistaken to discount popular/entertaining books (i.e., best-selling books) and thereby, the opinions of millions of readers.

Thanks in advance!

[Luke Haqq]

Hi am2gritt!

Happy to address answer choice (D) in more detail. You write,

I selected (D) because I thought it displayed the author's disagreement that critics are mistaken to discount popular/entertaining books (i.e., best-selling books) and thereby, the opinions of millions of readers.

The part I italicized seems to be potentially problematic, as it doesn't appear that this question is asking for the author's viewpoint. The question provides a line reference to a discussion about "familiarity" in the passage: "Perhaps underlying the debate is that familiar, false opposition set up between different kinds of fiction, according to which enjoyable novels are held to be somehow slightly lowbrow, and a novel is not considered true literature unless it is a tiny bit dull" (lines 5-9).

You're certainly right in noting the author's disagreement (since the author mentions a "false opposition"). However, crucially, the question stem asks which quotation "best exemplifies the 'familiar' attitude mentioned in lines 5-9," rather than asking for the quotation that best exemplifies how the author of the passage views this familiar attitude. This is what makes answer (C) better than (D). The author of the passage might be right that this is indeed a false opposition, but answer choice (C) sticks just to the familiar attitude and doesn't bring the views of the passage's author into it. If the question stem had asked for the author's attitude toward this familiarity mention in lines 5-9, then that would have made (D) a persuasive answer.

[viviannhernandezs@gmail.com]

Hi! I am still confused as to why choice D is not correct. My thought process began by not really understanding the question to ask about one particular side. I think if it would have been worded "a familiar attitude," answer choice C would be the obvious winner.
However, since I did not think that the question referenced just one side, I scratched choice C.
D seemed like the best answer, because it seemed to acknowledge two attitudes, "critics being condescending (not highbrow novels) and the novel being best selling (enjoyable novels being somewhat low-brow).

Can you please explain?
Also, what is your advise to avoid falling in these seemingly grammatical traps?

[Beatrice Brown]

Hi Vivian! Happy to help you out with this

The question is asking us about the attitude itself that is mentioned in lines 5-9. To understand what the question is asking, we need to go back to the passage and see what the "familiar" attitude is. According to the passage, the "familiar" attitude is that enjoyable novels are "slightly lowbrow" and true literature is "a tiny bit dull." The confusing aspect of this question is that lines 5-9 refer to this as a "familiar, false opposition." However, the word "false" just refers to the author's attitude towards this "familiar opposition" rather than showing that there are two different positions. The question is asking us about the "familiar opposition" itself, rather than the author's attitude towards it.

So the correct answer choice does not need to represent two separate views, but rather, it needs to represent this idea that enjoyable novels are "lowbrow" and true literature is "dull." Answer choice (C) captures the idea that true literature must be "dull" by saying that these works place demands on their readers rather than "divert them." In this context, "divert them" means that true literature should not amuse its readers. If true literature should not amuse its readers, then this captures the idea in lines 5-9 that true literature must be "a tiny bit dull."

Answer choice (D), on the other hand, does not discuss the idea of novels being dull vs. enjoyable and using this as a metric for whether they are true literature, instead discussing the idea of popularity. Since popularity of the novels was not discussed in the "familiar" attitude described in lines 5-9, this answer choice is incorrect.

To sum up and answer your question about avoiding falling into grammatical traps:

The tricky part about this question is realizing that the "familiar" attitude references the opposition of enjoyable novels as "lowbrow" and true literature as "dull." Although lines 5-9 state that this is a "familiar, false opposition," the important thing to keep in mind is what "false" is referring to, which is the author's view on this "familiar opposition." Since the question does not ask about the author's attitude but instead about the claim itself, we need to find an answer choice that captures the view of the "familiar" attitude, rather than two views.

If you're ever stuck on what a question is referring to/what a question is really asking, sometimes it is best to flag the question and come back with a fresh set of eyes once you've finished the rest of the section; when you come back to the question, you may realized how you were misinterpreting it.

I hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any other questions!

[NeedtopasstheLSAT]

Why is E wrong??

[katehos]

Hi NeedtopasstheLSAT, thanks for your question!

Simply put, answer choice (E) is incorrect because it does not relate to the "familiar" attitude discussed in lines 5-9. In order to further understand why that is the case, let's look to lines 5-9!

In these lines, we read about a familiar, false opposition "according to which enjoyable novels are held to be somehow slightly lowbrow and a novel is not considered true literature unless it is a tiny bit dull." So, we can summarize the familiar attitude as one that believes enjoyable novels are lower quality than true literature, which must be dull.

Answer choice (E) gives a quotation that states novels only have to satisfy requirements of a particular genre to be a true work of literature, which is pretty different than the attitude expressed in lines 5-9! So, we can eliminate answer choice (E) because it does not exemplify the familiar attitude in question.

I hope this helps
Kate