LSAT and Law School Admissions Forum

Get expert LSAT preparation and law school admissions advice from PowerScore Test Preparation.

 Administrator
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 8950
  • Joined: Feb 02, 2011
|
#84867
Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!
 PamelaO
  • Posts: 13
  • Joined: Jul 19, 2017
|
#38876
Hello, can someone explain this question better detail? Thank you.

I chose B, but the correct answer was D.
 Adam Tyson
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 5400
  • Joined: Apr 14, 2011
|
#39004
Sure thing, PamelaO! This question asks us about the author's use of the phrase "inverted snobbery". He used that phrase to attribute such snobbery to those critics who "(accuse) her of abandoning the time-honored conventions of the detective genre in favor of a highbrow literary style." In other words, these critics want P.D. James to stop messing around with all that fancy "high literature" stuff and just follow the standards of traditional crime fiction - lay out the trail of clues and let the detective, and perhaps the readers, solve the crime and catch the bad guy.

One key to eliminating answer B is the use of the word "they" in the question stem. "They" hold a certain view, according to the stem. Who are "they"? They are the critics who our author accuses of inverted snobbery, the critics mentioned in the first half of the question stem. He characterizes the critics as holding the view that...what? Do the critics hold the view that critics should hesitate to disparage popular authors? Hardly! Those critics are the ones doing the disparaging, so why would they hold the view that they shouldn't do that?

Instead, our author is telling us that the critics hold the view that James should quit trying to write high literature, and instead stick to crime fiction.

Re-read that question stem to make sure you understand whose view we are being asked about. Once you have that firmly in mind, it should be easy to eliminate answer B (and answer A while you're at it).

Keep at it!
 pinsyuanwu
  • Posts: 4
  • Joined: Jul 01, 2019
|
#66224
Dear Powerscore staff

Would you please explain why (D) is correct. I went back to the passage but I cannot see why those snobbery think detective fiction should be content to remain an unambitious literary genre. Thank you
 Adam Tyson
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 5400
  • Joined: Apr 14, 2011
|
#66301
Check my explanation earlier in this thread, pinsyuanwu - the critics mentioned in line 17 want James to quit doing that highbrow literary style stuff and get back to the time-honored conventions of the genre, the stuff they accuse her of "abandoning." Put another way, they are saying "quit being fancy! Keep it simple, the way it's always been done!" That's a pretty good match for answer D - stop trying to do something new and different and "highbrow", and just do it the same old way that we like and expect. That sounds pretty unambitious to me - don't change to something fancier, just do what has always been done.

Another way to approach this question, and many others across all sections of the test, is to eliminate wrong answers. You don't have to love the right answer, you just have to hate it less than the other four!

A and B are awful - critics don't hold views about critics, they hold views about authors.

C is awful - she isn't writing about characters from the English landed gentry, and nobody is criticizing her choice of characters but only the way she chooses to write about them

D is - sort of okay, maybe? Not awful, so keep it as a contender.

E is awful - there's nothing in the passage about violence one way or the other, so that cannot be what the inverted snobbery of the critics is about.

Four awful answers and one that's maybe okay? Pick the one that's maybe okay, with confidence and joy, and move on to whatever is next! Never get caught up in worrying about whether an answer is perfect, or even if it's good. Focus only on finding the answer that is the best of the bunch, no matter how much you might dislike it, and pick it without hesitation. That's the way you win the LSAT!
User avatar
 valentina07
  • Posts: 29
  • Joined: Jan 13, 2023
|
#107188
Hi,

I understand the gist of the answer should be that inverted snobbery = criticizing of highbrow literature and praise of simplicity/traditional detective fiction.

I was stuck between answers D and E and for this question.

I see that in your previous response you say that E is a bad answer because there is no mention of violence. But, I disagree. The literature in question is about "crime" and "murders" which I understood to include violence. In the passage, it is described how P.D. James is known for going far in depth with details about abstractions including pain. Therefore, I believed since this answer choice was critical of this aspect of her literature (which I understood contributed to the highbrow nature of her stories) it fit within the prediction I came up with.

Answer choice D also fit within the prediction I came up with, but I thought it was a weaker argument to call the genre "unambitious"
User avatar
 Dana D
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 385
  • Joined: Feb 06, 2024
|
#107252
Hey Valentina,

For specific reference questions such as this one, we need to narrow our scope to the portion of the passage in question. Here, we are asked what issues critics have with P.D. James in line 17 - her inverted snobbery, which she is accused of because she favors a highbrow literary style. While P.D. James discusses violence in her work, that is not why critics have given her this snobbery critique - they did it because of her 'highbrow' style, so we need an answer choice that addresses this particular issue. That is why answer choice (D) is correct - critics had an issue with P.D. James trying to make detective fiction into something higher status than what it was at the time.

Hope that helps!

Get the most out of your LSAT Prep Plus subscription.

Analyze and track your performance with our Testing and Analytics Package.