Post Six

Is readicide a problem in schools?

When was the last time you saw a student read a book for fun? I’ll let you think up the answer for that.

Is genre fiction less worthy than Literary Fiction?

Is a cake you make from a box less worthy that a cake you buy at Kroger's? No. They’re essentially the same thing. They are most likely exactly the same thing except one was made by someone whose job it is to bake and the other was made by someone who probably ate half of the batter before it was even put into the pan (you know who you are). This doesn’t mean that the cake mix is worse; it just means the creator put ingenuity into it. That cake you just bought at Kroger's was made to be exactly like the twelve dozen other cakes that person was supposed to make that day. The cake mix wasn’t just churned out so the person who made it could check a box and be done. They put their time and effort into it and made it exactly the way they wanted it. Maybe they but chocolate chips into the batter. Maybe they put sprinkles and icing on it. Sure, the person who made the cake from a box probably didn’t wash their hands first but I’d choose it over a cookie cutter any day.

Are you good with swapping out Of Mice and Men for Twilight, for example?

Long answer short, no. I think schools should teach both those books (please don’t shoot). In schools teachers really emphasize what makes a good book a good book. But I’ve never really heard anyone specifically makes a book a bad book. Schools also have a tendency to disallow a student to think for themselves if a book is good or not. For example, Romeo and Juliet.  Am I a literary scholar? Nope. Have I spent my entire life studying Shakespeare and other works from the Elizabethan era? Nope. Did I read Romeo and Juliet? Yep. Would I have read it even if I didn’t have to read it for school? Probably, but I probably would have stopped half way through. Did I like it? Well, that’s tricky. I kept telling myself it was a good play because that’s how it was introduced to me (I REALLY hated it). What did I tell my English teacher when she asked if I liked it or not? As far as she knows, I loved it. Because any other response would be incorrect. One does not simply dislike Shakespeare. But many people hate Twilight. Why is that? I’ve met many people who haven’t even read Twilight but think it’s horrible. Because that’s the popular opinion. They hear a majority say it’s bad and they just jump on the band wagon. They don’t have to read it to know it’s bad, they just know that’s what the cool kids told them. And therefore, it’s true. I have personally read Twilight, and I thought it was horrible. But why should it be taught in schools? Because it incorporates real world problems that are sugar coated (and no, I’m not talking about vampires). Twilight condones domestic abuse. But everyone I’ve met whose read it tries to gloss over that fact. Because they have been taught in school to read and check the boxes. Not to put what they’re reading in real world context.