#5 - Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[T.B.Justin]

Hey Brook,

You gave me a chuckle this morning! I love the lightheartedness!

[ashpine17]

i still do not understand how we can infer the comparison in D; yes, I can see that mexican american writing is more regional verusus the cosmopolitan tendencies of their mexican counterparts, but how am i supposed to infer that it is "harder" for mexican writers to get recognition? thought the paragraph was implying the literary establishment in mexico was restrictive on the sort of topics writers can write which is why they ended up with mostly cosmopolitan instead of "regional" writings. But in that case, how is C not correct as well?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi ashpine17!

Regarding answer choice (D), a good place to start is around line 39, which discusses "'regional' writing." This is specifically referring to Mexican American literature. As you rightly note, before this it's noted that Mexican literature is more cosmopolitan (lines 33-36). So if we're dealing with regional literature, it's either Mexican American, or if it's Mexican, then it'd have difficulty being published--because the passage indicates that the work of Mexican writers is controlled by a literary establishment and this control has produced literature "marked by greater cosmopolitanism" (lines 35-36).

I don't necessarily see the word "urban" in the passage--if the author had indeed said the elite liked urban settings in literature, that would provide additional support for (D) (though we do know the elite is concentrated in Mexico City). But we can still infer (D) without that--the Mexican literary establishment sees regional writing as having "apparent simplicity of what this community sees as parochial concerns" (lines 39-40), rather appreciating its richness. So regional writing is something that this establishment views negatively.

Regarding (C), the author of the passage does indeed see many strengths of Mexican American literature. This is discussed in the final paragraph. However, I don't see material where the author of the passage specifically connects these strengths to the lack of a major literary establishment for Mexican American literature.