Today on the ferry, Bryan and his fellow passengers discussed today’s front page news story highlighting the 21st century renaissance of young adult literature.
We are a reading household. We have shelves upon shelves of books, we read constantly, daily, and our kids have inherited the habit. They’ve both been reading way above grade level all along - testing at something like college level reading skills in sixth grade. Ben likes science fiction, fantasy and manga; Zach likes historical, fantasy and nonfiction.
Me? I read anything that is standing still and has alphanumeric text. My nonfiction tastes run to biographies, inspirational, spiritual, political, self help, cookbooks, travel, nature, historical and professional books. My fiction choices include science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, literature, classics, humor, chick lit, and very occasionally, romantic mind candy. I read stuff I agree with, and work I don’t agree with. I tear through books I love, but also slog through texts that aren’t clicking for me, in the hope that they’ll improve on the next page. I reread favorite books multiple times, and I’ve worn out copies of many.
When Bryan brought this up on the boat, and mentioned some of the books the boys had read, the reaction was interesting. In particular, they discussed Harry Potter. Ben has read every Harry Potter novel within days of its release, and loved them - I think they really engaged him in recreational reading.
One of our fellow ferry passengers mentioned he discourages his kids from reading them. He and his wife consider that sort of reading “drivel”.
Ooh, boy, does that push buttons with me!
It’s not that I’m a Harry Potter apologist… although I have enjoyed the books in the series, after Ben tore through them. I even believe that the books will become enduring works of children’s literature, living next to such series as Little House on the Prairie, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the Oz books.
The real issue I have is the nonsensical elitist attitude. There is something fundamentally flawed in the perspective that decides popular phenomenon must not be worthwhile. Jennifer Weiner tackles this subject from a different angle on her blog, SnarkSpot. Popularity and intrinsic value have little to do with each other! There are books, movies, tv shows, cultural phenomena that fall in every quadrant - popular, unpopular, intelligent and stupid, and eschewing pop culture doesn’t guarantee anything.
I don’t understand this thinking. I read Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Octavia Butler’s Fledgling back to back - one a classic and one contemporary speculative fiction. Admittedly, the recently deceased Butler is among the lions of literary, socially conscious SF writing, however, I got far more thought provoking mileage out of her book than Austen’s.
Dismissing phenomena just because they’re popular lacks the very logic the intellectual elite value so highly. Embracing the road less traveled as inherently more valuable is likewise unwise - sometimes it’s less traveled because it leads through the minefield. When making intelligent decisions about our consumer culture - about books, movies, tv, music, institutions, belief systems - let’s all invest in case-by-case evaluation, rather than make lazy snap judgments based on stereotypes.
