#6 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

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!

[pinsyuanwu]

Dear Powerscore Staff

I cannot see why (D) is correct. The author expresses his view from 3rd and 4th passage but I am not sure where to infer the author's view traditional detective fiction. Please kindly assist.

[Adam Tyson]

The answer can be found in lines 45-50, pinsyuanwu, quoted here:

Here her determination to leave areas of ambiguity in the solution of the crime and to distribute guilt among the murderer, victim, and bystanders points to a conscious rebellion against the traditional neatness of detective fiction.

In these lines, the author is indicating that the traditional detective novel does not have these characteristics of James' latest book. It does not have ambiguity in the solution, and guilt is not distributed. James is said to be rebelling against those traditions. That pretty strongly suggests that in a traditional detective novel, the solution to the crime should be clear, and the murderer should be the only party who is seen as guilty. That's the "straightforward culpability" in answer D!

The author seems to mostly like James' work, and thinks it's time for her to try something outside her usual genre, but he still has a clear sense of what that genre usually requires.

[ser219]

Can someone explain why B is wrong? I can see why D is correct.

The passage " Her devices to advance the story can be shameless and thin, and it is often impossible to see how her detective arrives at the truth; one is left to conclude that the detective solves crimes through intuition." Lead me to pick B as the answer.

Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi ser,

You are correct that answer choice (B) would be describing the opposite of what P.D. James did in her novels as described in the passage. However, the trick here is that we need to know that it's also describing what typical detective novels would do. We'd expect that P.D. James does SOME things the same as a typical detective novel. There are investigators. There are crimes committed. For the answer choice to be correct, it needs to have two key attributes.

1) It needs to describe the opposite of what a typical P.D. James novel does

and

2) It needs to be something that would be found in a typical detective novel.

In order for us to get to number 2, we need to have something in the passage tell us that her style is atypical in that way. We have that for answer choice (D), where they describe her tendency to leave ambiguity as a "rebellion" against traditional detective novels. But we don't have anything similar with answer choice (B).

Hope that helps!
Rachael