{"id":1157,"date":"2013-05-29T13:46:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-29T13:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/noelfigart.com\/blog\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2013-05-29T13:46:46","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T13:46:46","slug":"books-beneath-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noelfigart.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/29\/books-beneath-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Books Beneath You"},"content":{"rendered":"

So there’s this guy who is embarrassed that his wife reads a lot of YA<\/a> literature. “I feel mildly embarrassed that she can talk (in detail!) to my nieces about these books at holiday gatherings.”<\/p>\n

The idea that literature written for youngsters is automatically simplistic stuff is moronic. We all know the story about A Wrinkle in Time<\/em> being marketed as a YA because the ideas in it were too complex to be marketed as adult literature, yes? But YA often has more compelling storytelling than the adult stuff, so why not read it? I like<\/em> compelling storytelling. There’s a reason<\/em> I was a big fan of that Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender, <\/em>and why I loved the Harry Potter series.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, why must everything you read be “Great Literature?”<\/p>\n

Since books have been cheap enough for the masses to afford, there’s always been some peabrain who goes on about “bad literature” rotting the brain. Sometimes the peabrain is a celebrated author! Louisa May Alcott has several fine rants in Little Women, Eight Cousins<\/em> and Rose in Bloom <\/em>about the dangers of trashy literature. Never mind that she wrote a fair share of it herself!<\/p>\n

I do admit that I read with about the same forethought and discrimination most people apply to their television watching. That’s mostly because I rarely like<\/em> television shows (yes, Avatar was an exception) and go to reading for my entertainment on the same level as someone getting into reality TV. I mean, at present, I am reading T. Tembarom<\/em> by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and a more sentimental early twentieth century dime novel you’d be unlikely to find. It pulls on the emotions more or less like reality TV is meant to.<\/p>\n

Do I ever read “Great Literature?” I guess, but I don’t really think about it that way. Whenever I look at a list of 100 or so books that are listed as “classics,” it’s a pretty sure bet I’ve read at least 50 of them, sometimes more, depending on the list. But the fact that I have read them has considerably more to do with sheer volume at which I read than any real serious selection on my part. *grin* That, and the fact that you can read many classics for free by downloading them from The Gutenberg Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Maybe I’m a low-brow. I dunno. But one thing I am sure of, any guy who is embarrassed at his wife reading The Hunger Games<\/em> is a dork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So there’s this guy who is embarrassed that his wife reads a lot of YA literature. “I feel mildly embarrassed that she can talk (in detail!) to my nieces about these books at holiday gatherings.” The idea that literature written for youngsters is automatically simplistic stuff is moronic. We all know the story about A … <\/p>\n

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