redbrunja | I Suppose The Moral Is 'Read Jane Austen'

beforetv had a great round up of links regarding e-book sales, reader shaming, the classics, + rebuttals. It's well worth giving a read. My two cents? These elitist ideas about what is worth reading and why it's worth reading are really damaging to the general reading population.

Speaking personally, I feel that it's important to add in a sprinkle of the classics and current lit fic to my selection of genre reading (which I was actually better about doing in my childhood - I randomly picked up Jane Eyre at a super-young age) because a.) I find it intellectually satisfying (i.e. I enjoy doing so) and b.) I really, really love participating in the extended cultural conversation that is only possible when you can recognize the references. To use an example that would make elitist snobs scream, do you know how much more enjoyable reading Bridget Jones' Diary is when you know the author is referencing/riffing on Pride and Prejudice? Or when you have read Sense and Sensibility and thus, when Suzanne Brockmann says that Sophia's favorite book is S&S and her favorite character is Marianne, you are aquiver with squee because oh my god narrative parallels! Romantic relationship parallels! So much insight!

But it is important to note, I am an English major. If someone wants to read romance novels about pirates and only wants to read romance novels about pirates, that is totally fucking okay. And is not somehow inherently inferior (in a way that no one can articulate - or at least articulate without sounding like a total elitist douchebag) from only and exclusively reading authors whose works can be found in the pages of the New Yorker.

Also, because it seems relevant and I love love love this article: Why The Best Kid's Books Are Written In Blood.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is a good post. I agree that I think it's valuable to have some knowledge of the literary canon if only to enrich the rest of your pop culture experience. As another example, I am not religious but I've found it useful to have a knowledge of the Bible and other religious texts, as well as mythology, as the references are everywhere in literature, film, etc. You can watch and read something like Game of Thrones and have a greater appreciate for what GRRM is doing with the narrative if you get that he is playing with Classical tragedy, as well as traditional fantasy. That said, I love to read things that would probably be considered "low" art. It sucks that genre fiction gets such a bad rap.

As another example, I am not religious but I've found it useful to have a knowledge of the Bible and other religious texts, as well as mythology, as the references are everywhere in literature, film, etc.

Exactly. Sometimes there is an advantage to understanding what the allusions are being made too, even if you don't proscribe to the source.

That said, I love to read things that would probably be considered "low" art. It sucks that genre fiction gets such a bad rap.

It really does. Especially because it hamstrings debate both about the classics and about genre in general. Like, Nathanial Hawthowrne? Is a terrible writer. But NO ONE ever talks about that. It's all, 'wah, wah, he felt guilty that he was related to a judge who condemned people during the Salem witch trails, boo!'

I Suppose The Moral Is 'Read Jane Austen'

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