SAT Cross-Text Connections Question

Text 1 Toni Morrison's 1973 novel Sula, a tale of two women's lives set in small-town Ohio from the 1910s to the 1960s, has been described as historical fiction. While it's inarguable that Morrison's book takes place in the past rather than in her own time, Sula is much richer and more complicated than the mere re-creation of the past suggested by the term "historical fiction." Text 2 Some literary critics dismiss historical fiction as a shallow genre in which writers show off their knowledge of period details rather than tell meaningful stories. But historical fiction can be used to explore profound themes and complex characters—in fact, many writers find that writing about the past gives them a creative freedom they’d lack if they wrote about the present. Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the claim about Sula advanced by the author of Text 1?