Entrenched formal expectations prevent critics from recognizing genre innovation.

Evidence

Because Professor Redish’s formal expectations were so entrenched, he was apparently disabled entirely from even suspecting that something was going on in a book other than the failure to do the only thing he thought could be done with the subject. — Philip Chase Bobbitt, Reflections Inspired by My Critics, 581

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ‘misplaced expectations’ theme in literary criticism and to Kuhn on paradigm-bound perception. — connects to: Transparent realist form cannot escape the reader’s prevailing prejudices; Generous books overflow rigid categories and continuously exceed reader expectations — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 970; The unreliability of human expectations drives most great literature. (+3 more)

Related

• The unreliability of human expectations drives most great literature. (similarity 0.89)
• Critics internalize the highbrow canon until they stop desiring anything beyond it (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Transparent realist form cannot escape the reader’s prevailing prejudices #corroborates (0.75)
• Generous books overflow rigid categories and continuously exceed reader expectations #corroborates (0.70) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 970