: Re: What makes a bestseller - Writing or Setting? Note: I define 'setting' as where and when a novel takes place, as well as what the genre entails. It is the background to the picture of the

@Reiling826

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I don't want to be too cynical, but... being politically correct in just the right way.

It is old news in U.S. politics that, as is said in some of the many constellations of African national cultures, "It takes a village to raise a child." (Or, if you aren't reading this in history books, "It takes a village.") I don't know which of the many constellations of cultures this quote is attributed to, but there is something similar in spirit in one of Kenya many languages having a saying, "When you're pregnant with a child, he belongs to you. Once he's born, he's belongs to everybody." (And yes, I'm saying "he," out of respect to a culture that also says, "he.")

What "It takes a village to maintain a child" would ordinarily mean in any traditional African culture would probably be that every adult owes some participation in responsibility for every child: every adult stands, to some degree, in parentis loco. This is almost a diametric opposite to the contemporary U.S. understanding of "It takes a village", meaning more specifically that it takes a full complement of bureaucratic initiatives to raise a child, and adults of the village, and if you are cynical enough, parents too, know their place and do not encroach on state territory by standing in parentis loco.

Now it may be murky territory to say that the four words "It takes a village" is a bestseller. I submit that if you take the number of times that phrase has been broadcast to what number of people, we're giving your favorite bestselling author a run for its money.

I see no serious way to suggest that all you have to do is be politically correct in just the right way, maybe a several steps ahead in the Zeitgeist, as presumably there are three or four factors at minimum, and I furthermore do not see political correctness as the #1 contestant.

However, it would seem silly to try to write a bestseller while ignoring the true depths and layers of political correctness.

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