The importance of being literate
The recent study by the National Endowment for the Arts, "Reading at Risk," provided some disturbing findings: The number of Americans who engage in literary reading has dropped in all education and socio-economic levels. America's culture of reading is suffering. Americans should be worried about this trend.
Reading is important to any society. It creates a more analytical population that is willing to engage in meaningful discourse. When individuals can critically analyze society and culture, people as a whole benefit. As fewer people become engaged with literature, this integral part of our culture becomes lost to all but a handful of people. Essentially two cultures develop: one that reads and the one that does not.
Reading magazines and watching TV are not the same as reading a book. Magazines offer a rather cold and insensitive look into facts. Many popular magazines lack substance, and others even lack facts. The same goes for TV; watching TV is inherently a passive pastime. One can sit and zone out at the TV for hours. Literature, on the other hand, allows the reader to explore sensibilities and abstract thought. It is a much more emotional medium, because it is art, and thus allows people to explore an important element of the human experience. In a lot of ways it offers an exploration of the self. Only by understanding the self can an individual look outwards and understand the culture. Reading is crucial to being a curious person who constantly questions and examines the world.
Literature offers people myriad outlooks on life. A population that is engaged in active literary exploration becomes more aware of itself and its various viewpoints. With a more extensive literary culture, America can become a much more sentient society. This affects the quality of political and social discourse.
Due to the analytical quality of literary thought and its ability to increase self awareness and understanding, literature fosters a more educated, enriched and engaged population. This is important for the health of our society. A populace that has these characteristics will not only be more likely to engage in civic participation, but its participation will be of a higher quality. It would be interesting to look into a correlation between the decrease in literary participation to that of America's declining civic participation.
For all these reasons, it is a disturbing fact that the literary culture at Hopkins is so small. Understandably, many students have so much work that spending more time reading is discouraging. Vegging out in front of the TV becomes an attractive option for Hopkins students. Still it is a shame.
From stellar literature programs to the special collections of the MSE Library, Hopkins students have a wealth of literary resources at their fingertips. We encourage Hopkins students to explore these resources and participate in the adventure of reading.
Reading is important to any society. It creates a more analytical population that is willing to engage in meaningful discourse. When individuals can critically analyze society and culture, people as a whole benefit. As fewer people become engaged with literature, this integral part of our culture becomes lost to all but a handful of people. Essentially two cultures develop: one that reads and the one that does not.
Reading magazines and watching TV are not the same as reading a book. Magazines offer a rather cold and insensitive look into facts. Many popular magazines lack substance, and others even lack facts. The same goes for TV; watching TV is inherently a passive pastime. One can sit and zone out at the TV for hours. Literature, on the other hand, allows the reader to explore sensibilities and abstract thought. It is a much more emotional medium, because it is art, and thus allows people to explore an important element of the human experience. In a lot of ways it offers an exploration of the self. Only by understanding the self can an individual look outwards and understand the culture. Reading is crucial to being a curious person who constantly questions and examines the world.
Literature offers people myriad outlooks on life. A population that is engaged in active literary exploration becomes more aware of itself and its various viewpoints. With a more extensive literary culture, America can become a much more sentient society. This affects the quality of political and social discourse.
Due to the analytical quality of literary thought and its ability to increase self awareness and understanding, literature fosters a more educated, enriched and engaged population. This is important for the health of our society. A populace that has these characteristics will not only be more likely to engage in civic participation, but its participation will be of a higher quality. It would be interesting to look into a correlation between the decrease in literary participation to that of America's declining civic participation.
For all these reasons, it is a disturbing fact that the literary culture at Hopkins is so small. Understandably, many students have so much work that spending more time reading is discouraging. Vegging out in front of the TV becomes an attractive option for Hopkins students. Still it is a shame.
From stellar literature programs to the special collections of the MSE Library, Hopkins students have a wealth of literary resources at their fingertips. We encourage Hopkins students to explore these resources and participate in the adventure of reading.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Jon L Albee, CAGS '03
posted 11/30/07 @ 10:15 AM EST
Absolutely correct. The interesting thing to note is that the proliferation of massive chain bookstores and Amazon.com give one the false impression that our literary culture is expanding. (Continued…)
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