Comments on: This Is Not Writing; You Are Not Reading

By: Derek Slater

Derek Slater — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:31:20 +0000

“Austen is arguably the second best writer in all of English, but she requires emotional experiences that children do not have.” That’s as elegantly put as I’ve seen it, and true of 90%* of what they make you read in high school. I read The Stranger for the first time as an adult and felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach.
I’m perfectly happy when my daughter reads Magic Treehouse books or plays spelling games on Webkinz. She’s having fun. As long as she uses her brain a lot – whatever the medium – it’s good.
(*Arbitrary number. Liberal arts major.)

By: Wordman

Wordman — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:38:58 +0000

The “10+% of employers who think that reading comprehension is not very important” do so because they hope no one understands their employment contracts.
Also, Shakespeare’s plays were… sorry… may have been written by a female Jew: http://www.jewcy.com/post/shakespeares_plays_were_written_jewish_woman

By: David Brodbeck

David Brodbeck — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:37:16 +0000

You can predict a literature critics response to anything based on two simple rules:
1. Nothing written in the last 50 years is any good.
2. Nothing that the masses actually want to read is worthwhile.
They decried Harry Potter too.
I honestly think that these kinds of attitudes do a lot of damage. By convincing kids that books are tedious things to be slogged through only when required for school assignments, they turn people off to reading at a young age.