Readings, Rated
Nerds Do It Rarely
I really wish we had a discussion board up and running (we will soon, I promise). If we did, I would be the first to comment about that ridiculous opening paragraph in the Tribune article Gretchen just posted. Kathleen Parker, you won’t make literature any friends by claiming that readers are more sensual than other people. You might, however, make me throw up in my mouth a little.
Yeah, it stinks that major newspapers are cutting out books sections. Yeah, it’s a terrible shame that people aren’t reading as much as they used to. That said, it’s time to stop differentiating “book people” from other people. If US Weekly has taught us anything by showing that celebrities are just like us, we should know that we’re all the same, and you’re not going increase readership with sentences like the following:
Maybe we’ll be burning books in the town square chanting: We don’t need no dadgum books. We got Innernet porn ‘n’ satellite TeeVee!
Good show, Kathleen! I’m sure that every illiterate person sounds just like Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. Let’s make fun of illiterate people! Haha, their parents didn’t value literature! Haha, they didn’t go to school! Haha, they grew up in poverty! Jerks! Why can’t everyone be urbane and middle-class like us?
Pundits have been heralding the Death of Literature for at least ten years, ever since the publishing industry was gobbled up by international megaconglomerates and giant chain bookstores ate the indies. One less books section does not signal a seismic shift in the literary landscape, nor does it warrant an article that irritates even the staunchest reader.