When the hurly-burly’s done

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve found some blogs I really love and try to read on a daily basis.  Here they are–try them out yourself.

Corpus Obscura: Remembering Those Whose Accomplishments Vastly Exceeded Their Fame.  Short obituaries for people who contributed to the culture but never got famous for it.  For example, today they have a piece on one of the last Navajo code talkers.  Another recent one was on the guy who played the tuba for the Jaws theme.

Iraq Blog Count keeps track of bloggers writing from various locations in Iraq.  They cover a panoply of Iraqi society, from teenagers to professors.  The small pictures of daily life in a war zone are always illuminating and occasionally hearbreaking.

3quarksdaily is neat, too.  On Mondays, they run something called “Monday Musings,” in which one of their wonderful writers addresses some topic related to the arts or sciences.  You never know what you’ll get.  The rest of the time, they operate as a filter blog (a blog that collects bits of news and information and aggregates it for a readership).

Last week, the Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate ran an Op-Ed by Joe Pisani decrying the effects of the “PlayStation effect” on people’s reading habits:

Would any of the young people waiting for the new PlayStation — some of whom had guns and were prepared to commit armed robbery to get one — have shared my enthusiasm?

How has so much changed in 50 years since that book first appeared? Despite all the technological advancements during the last half-century, fewer people read, and fewer, it seems, can read. Equally worrisome, fewer even want to read, which is a social problem created in part by the PlayStation mentality.

Leaving aside Pisani’s fear of heavily-armed PlayStation-craving teenagers, I found his premise to be fairly ridiculous.  Hence, I sent in a letter.  Below is my original version, a lot of which I had to cut for publication (they have a 450-word limit for letters to the editor):

Dear editor,

As an English teacher by trade, and an avid reader by inclination, I read with interest Joe Pisani’s column entitled “Finding Little Rhyme or Reason in Video Games.”  I guess I am predisposed to agree with his main point, which seems to be that the hype surrounding the launch of the PlayStation 3 is a good reason to reexamine why he loves poetry and why he is worried that today’s youth will miss out on the chance to memorize “The Rhime of the Ancient Mariner,” which will be a great loss.  But I’ve got some fundamental issues with his opinion on the matter.

I’m not sitting here memorizing Coleridge (though my students memorize Shakespeare), but I as I type this on my laptop, I have three open browser windows bringing me a wealth of information that I am working my way
through.  Window #1 has my RSS aggregator, which collects news from literally hundreds of sources around the world (ie the BBC, Iraqi citizens’ blogs about life in their neighborhoods, professional and nonprofessional writers) and displays it in an easy-to-access format.  Window #2 has the New York Times Sunday magazine, which led today with an article about educational policy and NCLB.  And Window #3 has the good old Greenwich Time. To complete the picture, I’ve got a copy of Moby-Dick next to my bed, as well as notes on Huck Finn and Their Eyes Were Watching God for my classes this week sitting on my desk.

Reading isn’t dead, despite what the alarmists say.  There was a study done in 2002 by the National Endowment for the Arts, which I suspect was the source of Mr. Pisani’s comment that “[F]ewer people read, and fewer, it seems, can read. Equally worrisome, fewer even want to read, which is a social problem created in part by the PlayStation mentality.”  And yes, the survey found that fewer adults “read for pleasure,” which, in my line of work, is certainly dismaying news.  But I don’t think that technology is to blame for that.  In fact, I would not be surprised if the members of today’s prized 18-34 demographic are reading far more than ever before.  I’m firmly in that demographic and I can barely keep up with my daily reading list, which includes anywhere from 30-100 blogs and other online sources (not all are updated regularly), student work, scholarly journals, and keeping up with Ishmael.  It’s true that I haven’t purchased any books since the summer, but I’ve patronized the library and used online sources like bookmooch.com to acquire books for my temporary and permanent collections.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Mr. Pisani shouldn’t panic.  Maybe I’m unusual, but I don’t think that technology is ruining reading.  People read for different reasons today than they did yesterday.  Gone are the days when young men could even hope to believe, as Mr. Pisani did, that reciting verse would attract a mate.  And while I like a good poem as much as anyone possibly can, I’m not mourning.  I’ll read some brand-new poetry someone wrote for her blog, and I’ll make comment with the poet and offer my observations and critique, and I’ll enjoy reading.

Thoughts?
 

Take a minute or two (or more) and just think.

Chaucer’s got a great post on the matter, too.