All the thesis presentations were wonderful and well thought out and well articulated and interesting, of course, but Joanne's thesis really resonated with me and with a lot of other members of the class as well because it was so interesting and original.
The idea that bestsellers follow a specific formula is incredibly apparent. I think the majority of the class can relate to the feeling of reading a James Patterson or a Dan Brown thriller novel under the classification as "guilty pleasures" for the same reason so many people line up to watch chick flicks or GI Joe movies. Guilty pleasures are fun and so is escapism. Since we are all experienced readers we know that reading fast-paced thriller novels is not particularly literary but they are fun to read, and hey! it's still a book, right?
Approaching the idea of an escapist thriller from a formulaic standpoint is a refreshing way to approach the genre. Either as a formula for success or as a strategy in order to recognize patterns. Most bestseller novels are written at the pace and style similar to the movies, eliminating literary details, symbolism, metaphor or what have you makes it attainable to the average reader that simply needs a book to read in a hurry.
I especially liked Joanne's close reading of the first passage of the novel as a formulaic device in order to "hook" the reader into the novel. And I realized how effective the "hook" sentence can be when I tried to remember how exactly the line went and all I could remember was:
"blah blah blah blah couple, blah blah laughter, blah blah blah blah breasts."
Yep, I'm hooked.
