Critic: It is common to argue that there is a distinction between literary and genre fiction. The first should be interpreted, so this argument goes, while the second is merely a source of easy pleasure. But this is a specious distinction -- not because every work should be interpreted, but because no work should be. When we evaluate a work principally for its themes and ideas, we cut ourselves off from the work' s emotional impact.
The claim that when we evaluate a work principally for its themes and ideas, we cut ourselves off from the work's emotional impact is offered as support for the conclusion in the critic's argument.