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Serious novelists start writing

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by paes » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:07 pm
Serious novelists start writing because of a desire to create a work of art and recognize as great literature the works of other novelists who achieve this goal. As a consequence, when a novel becomes a best-seller, the authors of other novels conclude that the best-seller is not truly great literature.

The explanation offered above for the view authors hold of best-sellers assumes that

1. work on a novel that the author hopes will be regarded as great literature must be undertaken in solitude

2. serious novelists tend not to view as great literature a novel produced by an author whose success they envy

3. a novelist can produce a best-seller without having already produced great literature

4. serious novelists believe that those novelists who produce best-sellers must not have aimed at producing a work of art

5. the claim of a novel to status as great literature cannot be evaluated by individuals who are not themselves serious novelists

[spoiler]OA later
give your answer with explanation.
Source : Princeton test
[/spoiler]
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Source: — Critical Reasoning |

by sk818020 » Sat Jul 10, 2010 5:54 pm
IMO the answer is 4 or D.

Take the last sentence; As a consequence, when a novel becomes a best-seller, the authors of other novels conclude that the best-seller is not truly great literature.

The central assumption is that in the authors view no best seller is a work of art. There for any author who creates a best seller must have understood that his best seller will no be considered by others to be a work of art and must not have had the intentions to be considered a work of art. Thus, D.

Hope that helps.

Can you please let us know what the OA is?

Thanks,

Jared
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by paes » Sat Jul 10, 2010 8:40 pm
OA is D.

But somehow I am not convinced with D.

Assumption has to be true for a argument validity.
But in case of D, even if D is not true then also the argument can valid.

take the negation of D :

serious novelists believe that those novelists who produce best-sellers must have aimed at producing a work of art

still the conclusion

the authors of other novels conclude that the best-seller is not truly great literature.

can be true.
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by apex231 » Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:59 pm
D) "As a consequence, when a novel becomes a best-seller, the authors of other novels conclude that the best-seller is not truly great literature."

In option D how do we know that the authors being referred to are serious novelists or novelists in general? Second, we don't know that the "other novels" in queston were best-sellers or not.

Don't we need these two pieces of information to conclusively select D? Can someone shed some light on this?
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by agganitk » Wed Jul 28, 2010 4:14 am
can someone explain this prb's solution?
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