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Originally Posted by speakingtohe
I am perhaps misreading you but, you seem to be conceding points and contradicting your concession in the next line or two.
In the above post for example I see you saying people should not have to read books if they do not like the style, but the wine analogy implies that their opinions are irrelevant, and that they have not actually read farther than the first few pages. Certainly true in some cases, but doubtful for the majority IMO.
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Okay. All I'm saying is that whether it constitutes a majority or a tiny minority, some people have things that they just won't tolerate. For instance, some people see any major linquistic experimentation as unnecessary and pretentious. Some people just want a straightforward story. Some people want a particular kind of story. When these people pick up a book and see that it is not a straightforward story, or that it does unconventional things, or doesn't tell the kind of story they want to read, they'll put the book down.
That is fine. To go the drink analogy, I personally don't drink alcohol. If I picked up a drink (don't ask me why I'm picking up random drinks) and smelled that it had alcohol in it I'd put it down without tasting it. I wouldn't give it a try. I wouldn't drink the whole glass hoping that I'll eventually like it. I'm already indisposed against it. I'd just put it down, even if there was the possibility that if I did gulp it down it would be amazing.
But I don't how anyone could take me seriously if I then started to critique the quality of that beverage. I might say that alcohol is nasty, but obviously alcohol lovers would rightfully just shrug me off.
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A person indisposed to alcohol with an opinion on wine, would in this case be analogous to a person indisposed to reading and an opinion on a book, regardless the reason.,
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This interpretation isn't what I had in mind.
A wine is a particular kind of drink, just like soda, milk, juice, water, tea, coffee, sports drink, etc. Different genres are like different kinds of drinks. I may not like a particular kind of drink, and I may say why I dislike that kind of drink in general, but I wouldn't give opinions as to the quality of a particular drink in that "genre." I couldn't give you a valid opinion as to whether a beer is good or bad. I certainly couldn't give valid reasons for what makes that a particular beer good or bad.