Does anyone want to be "well-read?"

www.rogerebert.com ^ | 04/16/11 | Roger Ebert

[BenLurkin]

Lionel Trilling?

Lionel Train?

[Borges]

What do you mean?

[BenLurkin]

Lionel Train was the character played by Truman Capote in “Murder By Death”.

[iowamark]

Ebert makes the occasional great point.

[GeronL]

Roger Ebert: Killing with Bore-dum

[OldDeckHand]

I loathe Ebert, but he has a point. Although there's a guy named Updike who sold pretty well in the last 40-years. For whatever reason, he doesn't make Ebert's list.

The other point that I would make is that while we have seen a decline in the consumption of "great literature", we have also seen an incredible uptick in the consumption of non-fiction books. He's not accounting for that, perhaps intentionally.

Still, Twilight and Harry Potter are to reading what Taco Bell is to eating. It may be plentifully sold, but that doesn't mean it's not crap.

[VoiceOfBruck]

He lost me at “disports.”

Actually he lost me with his assumption that everyone had read Ginsburg’s “Howl.” I tried. Ick. No thanks.

[ClearCase_guy]

There is plenty of good stuff out there. There are many reasons why people don't read.

I think government schools do a wretched job of teaching a love of books. Do the kids read the book for class? Or does the teacher show the movie? And what kind of variety is demonstrated? Doesn't everyone read "To Kill a Mockingbird"? "Catcher in the Rye"? Wouldn't it be great if you ran into someone at camp who had never heard of those books? You could introduce them! And what if your new friend was shocked that you hadn't heard of "My Antonia"? They could open a new world for you! But nooooo ... often the conversation is (at best) "Did you read 'To Kill a Mockingbord'?" "Naaaaaaah. I was supposed to. I just watched the movie instead." "Yeah, me too."

If kids learned Latin, if kids memorized real poetry (and, No, Alice Walker isn't a real poet) then they might learn to love language.

For most kids, literature is what you find on Facebook, and culture is what you find on Youtube.

[hinckley buzzard]

I am often tempted to read serious work, but halfway through Ozick's thicket of overdone florid prose, I lay down and breathed deeply until the urge to finish it passed over.

[iowamark]

Lionel Trilling was a Colombia classmate and friend of Whittaker Chambers. Lionel and Diana Trilling were leading 20th century New York literary figures.

[Retired Greyhound]

People should read what they enjoy, not what the pointy-head academics consider necessary to become “well-read”.

[Retired Greyhound]

Harry Potter is quite enjoyable reading. I would argue that it is not crap.

[Borges]

You don’t think imbibing the best of Western Culture is important? What

[Radix]

Not if I have to go to Ebert’s web page first.

[Borges]

You don’t. The whole article is here.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Like many intellectuals, he was incapable of saying a simple thing in a simple way."

~ Marcel Proust ~

[Flycatcher]

My first exposure to Henry James was the short story "The Real Thing." I thought no one had ever written sentences so obdurate and baffling.

Indeed.

Extraordinary syntax from an extraordinary writer.

His work will survive the ages.

[OldDeckHand]

"Harry Potter is quite enjoyable reading. I would argue that it is not crap."

I'll meet you half way - Potter perhaps doesn't dip into the murky literary ether that is the Twilight saga. But, it's not what I would call "great literature" either. Is it entertaining? My kids, all of whom read the books, promise me that it was. However, Is Rowling this generation's Cervantes? I'm thinking no.

[Revolting cat!]

Do I have to read Alice Adams, Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag, Lillian Hellman? No thanks, I’d rather read Witold Gombrowicz and Alvaro Mutis.