What to do about growing illiteracy in America? It’s a problem behind a host of other social ills, including unemployment, crime, and mental illness. Frederick Hess, a former teacher, has a suggestion:
One reason that boys read less than girls may be that we’re not introducing them to the kinds of books they may like. There was a time when schools really did devote too much time to generals and famous battles, but we’ve massively overcorrected. Indeed, I find that too many “diverse, inclusive” reading lists feature authors who may vary by race and gender but overwhelmingly tend to write introspective, therapeutic tales that read like an adaptation of an especially heavy-handed afterschool special.
Sadly, our schools are not helping this problem. In some ways, they’re making things worse. Reading is often shoved at students as a burden, if not punishment. Plus, the approved reading list often fails to snag interest. Too many of the folks running public education believe “real” literature is, as Hess writes above, introspective and therapeutic. In a word, dull. This highbrow view of literature is the legacy of William Dean Howells, the influential author and editor of The Atlantic Monthly. Here’s Howells’ view of what literature should be:
Yet every now and then I read a book with perfect comfort and much exhilaration, whose scenes the average Englishman would gasp in. Nothing happens; that is, nobody murders or debauches anybody else; there is no arson or pillage of any sort; there is not a ghost, or a ravening beast, or a hair-breadth escape, or a shipwreck, or a monster of self-sacrifice, or a lady five thousand years old in the whole course of the story…. Yet it is all alive with the keenest interest for those who enjoy the study of individual traits and general conditions as they make themselves known to American experience.
The Realist literary movement Howells pushed decreed that instead of action and heroism, literature should focus on interior tension and the experience of ordinary people. To impart the real life of real people, Realist authors focused on gritty detail. However, devotion to the mundane often produced boring and sordid tales. Ambrose Bierce defined “Realism” in his Devil’s Dictionary as “The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads. The charm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by a measuring-worm.”
Of course, the antidote is to read and promote tales of adventure, intrigue, and heroism, stories that illustrate a virile and heartening sense of life. That’s what both young and old need today. There’s plenty available, but first we have to unburden ourselves of the notion that self-appointed highbrows get to tell us what real literature is.
M.C. Tuggle, Writer 
Boy, do I ever agree with what was said. Looking back at my formative years, Most of what I read were science books. But then there were biographies such books about the Wright Brothers, Abe Lincoln, even Clara Barton. I consumed the works of Jack London, Zane Grey, and Mark Twain. I devoured experiences with books like Samauri by Martin Caiden or Alone by Charles Lindburgh.
If there was a wrong in reading those books it was to make me look beyond the horizon and want to go there and see and do these things myself. What can I say. If you worship at the altar of Hero’s, you want to become one.
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That’s what kids today would love to read – if they knew such treasures existed.
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I was just thinking about this yesterday. In Science Fiction, which is my genre, critics tend to like weird worlds filled with very strange characters. The more “way out” the better because these stories demonstrate great imagination and creativity by the author. There is only one problem. These stories are unaccessible, not relatable, and, for the most part, unreadable. The stories that people like are filled with imaginative,
plausible worlds populated by relatable, likable, if somewhat quirky characters. And there is plenty of action, drama, conflict, and unexpected plot twists. These are the stories that hold readers spellbound.
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You are right to point out a trap than many spec authors make. As Flannery O’Connor put it, as an author “you have to make your vision apparent by shock — to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures.” But it’s a balancing act – yes, make those characters larger than life, but make them relatable as well.
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Graphic novels filled a gap for my sons. Before long they were into Game of Thrones etc and now are both avid readers.
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Reading Marvel a long, long time ago definitely improved my knowledge of the world, as well as my vocabulary.
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One of my sons has been studying French for a few years, so he can understand Asterix Graphic Novels in the original French!
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Formidable!
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The truths here are like giant wave that need to engulf teachers and schools. If a teacher is excited about a book, children will be excited about reading. Let children read whatever they find interesting.
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