Challenging false dichotomies

I was pleased to see PAW recognize the work of Jodi Picoult ’87 (cover story, Jan. 18). In her writing, Picoult imaginatively tackles subjects that others hesitate to question and provokes her readers to join her in places others would not go. Books like hers challenge the socially constructed, gendered, and essentially false dichotomies between “literary” and “commercial” fiction, and between “women’s” and “mainstream” literature. Those who cling so tenaciously to such distinctions ought to probe the sources of their own insecurities instead.