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   Gerald So (sogerald@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 16-Dec-2024 01:22:33 JST Gerald So

   #WritersCoffeeClub Dec 14: Is it OK for a book to be purely entertainment, or must it have meaning or a lesson?

   I suppose it's theoretically okay. Personally I don't see how one can entertain w/o meaning/significance. If something is meaningless, the audience doesn't need to pay attention to it. If they don't pay attention, it can't entertain them.

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     Gerald So (sogerald@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 16-Dec-2024 01:22:32 JST Gerald So

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     Some answer that all fiction is purely for entertainment, implying it matters less than "serious" things. This may be true, but stories need meaning in their own worlds if not in reality. If fiction has no meaning to itself, it has no appeal to readers. Stories are not mindless entertainment. They have beginnings, middles, and ends - structure that the audience expects will hold.

     #WritersCoffeeClub Dec 14

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     Gerald So (sogerald@masto.ai)'s status on Monday, 16-Dec-2024 01:22:33 JST Gerald So

     in reply to

     I distinguish meaning from lesson. Meaning is weight/consequence. Lesson is morality. I think one can entertain w/o moralizing.

     #WritersCoffeeClub Dec 14

     Cooking the books repeated this.