Oscar Wilde once said “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world it’s own shame.”[1] and thinking on that statement now, I realise how applicable it is to my chosen topical question: ‘Do realistic fiction novels romanticise controversial topics, such as terminal illness?’ I believe in today’s society, topical issues can be romanticised in novels to create a less controversial tone in the literary community and therefore improve sales, but at the cost of the quality of the writing and plot line. Realistic fiction is defined as a genre consisting of stories that could have actually occurred to people or animals in a believable setting; these stories resemble real life, with fictional characters within these stories
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Furthermore, there shouldn’t be any blurring of reality in these novels, even if it is presenting ‘the world it’s own shame.’ This is highly related to the historic genre’s of transcendentalism and dark romanticism and which one has the more accurate portrayal of humanity. Transcendentalism held a light hearted view concerning how humans are ‘possessing divinity and wisdom’ [3], which is exactly what romanticised realistic fiction concedes to, where as it should follow the dark romanticism genre which is less confident in the notion: ‘perfection is an innate quality of mankind’. [4] By romanticising realistic fiction, the written word becomes fictional and therefore, a misrepresentation of mankind (such as inherent goodness and having a forgiving nature). I will be exploring and analysing three realistic fiction novels which address my chosen topic of terminal …show more content…
One of the most devastating illnesses to ever claim victims is undoubtedly cancer, causing many authors to write about fictional or real experiences. For example, John Green published ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ in 2012 [5] and it immediately became one of the most popular realistic fiction novels of all time, finding a place in many people’s hearts. However, as a reader of this book, I found this novel to be highly unrealistic both in terms of the plot line and inaccurate characters. The two protagonists Hazel and Augustus are wise beyond their years, creating metaphors with exemplary meaning and spewing poetic monologues that no teenager in the 21st century would ever be able to think up on the spot. This already takes away the relatability for the majority of the projected teenage audience. Their words may be profound and in many cases rather funny, however, having your main protagonists with terminal cancer being ironic about their illnesses and swapping cancer jokes between themselves isn't groundbreaking and isn’t realistic. Upon reading this book, I felt the writing was very insincere, not only in characterisation, but in plotline as well. Cancer is painful, and as any cancer victim will say, it’s a life-changing struggle, but ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ didn’t convey that in any way to me. It showed me a cheesy romance novel disguised as realism fiction,
Furthermore, there shouldn’t be any blurring of reality in these novels, even if it is presenting ‘the world it’s own shame.’ This is highly related to the historic genre’s of transcendentalism and dark romanticism and which one has the more accurate portrayal of humanity. Transcendentalism held a light hearted view concerning how humans are ‘possessing divinity and wisdom’ [3], which is exactly what romanticised realistic fiction concedes to, where as it should follow the dark romanticism genre which is less confident in the notion: ‘perfection is an innate quality of mankind’. [4] By romanticising realistic fiction, the written word becomes fictional and therefore, a misrepresentation of mankind (such as inherent goodness and having a forgiving nature). I will be exploring and analysing three realistic fiction novels which address my chosen topic of terminal …show more content…
One of the most devastating illnesses to ever claim victims is undoubtedly cancer, causing many authors to write about fictional or real experiences. For example, John Green published ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ in 2012 [5] and it immediately became one of the most popular realistic fiction novels of all time, finding a place in many people’s hearts. However, as a reader of this book, I found this novel to be highly unrealistic both in terms of the plot line and inaccurate characters. The two protagonists Hazel and Augustus are wise beyond their years, creating metaphors with exemplary meaning and spewing poetic monologues that no teenager in the 21st century would ever be able to think up on the spot. This already takes away the relatability for the majority of the projected teenage audience. Their words may be profound and in many cases rather funny, however, having your main protagonists with terminal cancer being ironic about their illnesses and swapping cancer jokes between themselves isn't groundbreaking and isn’t realistic. Upon reading this book, I felt the writing was very insincere, not only in characterisation, but in plotline as well. Cancer is painful, and as any cancer victim will say, it’s a life-changing struggle, but ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ didn’t convey that in any way to me. It showed me a cheesy romance novel disguised as realism fiction,