Depressing Book Statistics On College Readers
Posted by Joe | March 11th, 2009 | 8 Comments »The Washington Post’s Ron Charles has presented us with his article, “On Campus, Vampires Are Besting the Beats” (terrible title, I know) about how college kids, instead of reading the classics, literature, or radical texts, are reading that accursed “Twilight” series about histrionic vampire teenagers. From the article:
Professor Eric Williamson — a card-carrying liberal in full tweed glory — argues that “the entire culture has become narcotized.” An English teacher at the University of Texas-Pan American, he places the blame for students’ dim reading squarely on the unfettered expansion of capitalism. “I have stood before classes,” he tells me, “and seen the students snicker when I said that Melville died poor because he couldn’t sell books. ‘Then why are we reading him if he wasn’t popular?’ ” Today’s graduate students were born when Ronald Reagan was elected, and their literary values, he claims, reflect our market economy. “There is nary a student in the classroom — and this goes for English majors, too — who wouldn’t pronounce Stephen King a better author than Donald Barthelme or William Vollmann. The students do not have any shame about reading inferior texts.”
Incredibly sad. The “Twilight” series is fine for kids who are just getting into reading; like “Harry Potter,” it might not be written well but at least kids are reading. But adults? Adults who are enrolled in higher education and trying to broaden their horizons? You’re reading Melville, moron, because “Moby Dick” is the pinnacle of American literature. I place the blame on high school English teachers. I’m sorry, but high school English teachers present reading like it’s a chore. Once these kids graduate and move on to college, they take with them the mentality that the only purpose of reading is to write the essay or take the test. I had some good high school English teachers, but I also had an extremely awful one who, being the senior-most English teacher at the school, taught the highest level classes and made class incredibly boring. Luckily I already enjoyed reading. I made it out of high school with my curiosity intact. Others, I’m sure, weren’t so lucky.
Ron Charles’ opinion is:
Here we have a generation of young adults away from home for the first time, free to enjoy the most experimental period of their lives, yet they’re choosing books like 13-year-old girls — or their parents. The only specter haunting the groves of American academe seems to be suburban contentment.
So true. But college is pretty worthless these days anyway. It’s just an extension of high school. When college enrollment became the norm, colleges learned they could charge more money because they are, at their core, for-profit businesses. Loan companies don’t even think twice about giving you money if you’re going to school (bad business: I should not have been given loan money to get my MFA because it’s ultimately a bad investment – who knows if they’ll ever see that money again). So now anybody can go to college and get a degree. Not a bad thing necessarily, but it’s about supply and demand. If everybody has a college degree it becomes meaningless. If everybody can go, you don’t get the best and brightest. So now everybody can get a degree, but they graduate and begin their lives in crushing debt and can’t find a job because the economy sucks and everybody has the same degree they have. Why would we think otherwise that this demographic would read “Twilight” instead of Melville? The article points out that in the past college students were more studious. Of course they were; there was a real reason people went to college and that reason was that they wanted to learn. Now a college degree is viewed as a work permit, which we’re beginning to realize it most certainly is not.
Still, I have hope. I have to. Otherwise, I am in the wrong business.
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Tags: college, herman melville, literature, mfa, moby dick, ron charles, twilight, university, washington post
March 11th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
dude don’t blame english teachers. what the fuck. go try to teach literature all damn day to little annoying kids who just want to go home and get on facebook. and shit..facebook is a lot more fun than 19th century literature most of the time. i think we’ve all spent a lot more time doing stupid shit on the internet than we have with Dickens. it’s just a change in our culture and teachers don’t help shape culture at all, they’re just a reflection of it. this is all just a big change, more people are going to college now and a bigger percentage don’t understand melville than didn’t before. i personally couldn’t handle moby dick and it’s no one’s fault but my own. and dude…we’ve all done dumber things in college than reading twilight. when i think of the dumb shit i did when i was 18/19/20 it definitely would be up there with reading vampire books. there are still a lot of really bright young minds out there and there always will be. don’t be a bitter grandpa, sheeeeeet!
March 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Shouldn’t teachers help mold young minds or should they just endure the annoying kids, collect a paycheck, and go home? I think they should help shape culture. It’s the job of teachers to show what’s so great about what they’re teaching, why they teach it, and why it should be learned. Otherwise, what’s the point of becoming a teacher? I know students can be annoying as I was one of those annoying students. But you definitely know better than me. I don’t think teachers are supported enough by parents, the administration, our culture. And while Facebook is fun, it’s definitely not as fun as Moby Dick. Maybe you couldn’t handle the book in college, Bradner, but I’m positive you could handle it now.
I’m not trying to be a bitter grandpa about it; it’s just depressing that college-aged kids would rather read a poorly written book meant for children than real literature. Things are just getting dumbed down. It’s sad.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
dude go teach a little bit and get back to me hahaha…any preconception you have of what it is/should be would be smashed. and you telling me what my job should be is a bit like nails to a chalkboard, honestly. teachers do both. endure and sometimes shape some kids minds but only those who are ready for it or want it. you can’t force anyone to change. change is a natural thing that just happens based on a whole lot of different factors. societal change has never ever came out of high schools. seriously. high schools are mostly funded by and restricted by the government and the communities that surround them. all the bad ass teachers in the world couldn’t stop it.
and man, who’s to say what “real literature” is. in 100 years, maybe, students will be reading shitty vampire novels and analyzing them. why are you so concerned about what other people read? who fucking cares? it’s not like our entire civilization is doomed because of this. it’s just going to be different just like it always is. nobody reads latin and greek anymore and we’re all the better for it. reading literature is ultimately entertainment. you can only get stuff out of it if you want to and work at it…and you can get stuff out of anything. you can talk about the narrative structure of mario kart and put in marxist / freudian theory, too, if you wanted. about how it’s more an game of middle classes to make them think driving is cool and the tension between mario and luigi as brothers who both want to have sex with princess toadstool.
March 11th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
You’re right on the teaching stuff, Bradner. I don’t know as much as you about it but I did go to high school and I can still have an opinion based on my experience. But I don’t think you’re right about what real literature is or should be or what it will be like in 100 years. Maybe the “Twilight” series will be revered like Lord of the Rings but that doesn’t mean it’s good and it doesn’t mean there won’t be thousands of other books that were written that people think are better and “literature.” I agree that books are, at their core, entertainment. But I think they should also be taught as such. High school kids don’t need to read Pride & Prejudice; it’s way over their heads and it’s boring to them. But they could read more modern books that still try to achieve something beyond entertainment to inspire them to explore further.
I also disagree on your analysis of Mario Kart and the Mario series as a whole. I think Mario is trying to have sex with Princess Toadstool. But Luigi has a crush on Wario; Wario is a lot like Luigi’s brother Mario, but he’s a dick, and Luigi is one of those people who goes for someone who’s no good for him.
Ultimately, I don’t care what people read. But I can still be depressed about trends toward stupidity, can’t I? You’ve seen Idiocracy, right?
March 11th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
dude…if you have a depressing outlook of the future it’s just cause you’re depressed. if you think people are getting dumber it’s because you fear that in yourself. idiocracy is a damned comedy. it’s makes you laugh because it’s absurd and exaggerated. the amount of information out there, its ease of accessibility and use is growing at rates we never thought possible.
every generation bitches about the upcoming one but it’s just because we don’t totally understand each other. our teachers and parents and grandpas who thought we were getting dumber because of grunge music, walkmans and cable tv can now witness some dude our age who’s working on developing a 6th fucking sense, for example. holy sHIT!! (really watch this video if you haven’t seen it. it will blow you away)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html
March 11th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
I really don’t know how we got this far with this argument. Whatever you say, I don’t think you’re going to convince me that “Twilight” is good. It’s fine for kids to read and I’m glad it’s getting kids reading. But I’m skeptical of older people who are really into it. Sorry, buddy. That’s just how it is for me.
March 12th, 2009 at 7:45 am
homie i’m definitely not saying twilight is any good. i’m saying it doesn’t matter if a few people read a few shitty books and a few good ones are sort of left behind by the majority. it’s always been happening and it always will. it’s no one’s fault it’s just human nature to always be changing their culture. nothing to get sad about.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Which is worse, spending an hour reading Twilight or spending an hour watching Flava of Love?