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Literate Chaotic / Re: Thoughts on Reading
« on: August 02, 2010, 02:43:43 pm »
One thing I have been pondering for a while about reading.
Yes, being literate is important, but why is it that reading for entertainment is viewed as better than watching tv or playing video games?
When reading a book, you are being passively entertained. I guess more neurons are firing because you are supposed to be imagining everything that is going on in the book you are reading, so it generally more active than tv. Part of the reason I stopped reading as much for pleasure as I did when I was younger is that I've noticed more and more books are just garbage, and that I am really lazy. The few times I have set out to read some classic, I have generally gotten bored, mostly due to minor changes in language and the writing styles of then vs now.
Granted, while I own a TV, I do not have cable or an antenna. And the few times I have watched tv I just end up tuning it out and doing something else, as tv seems to more garbage filled than the pulp masses lining the walls of BN.
And as an aside. Hamlet and other works of the Bard aren't meant to be read, they are meant to be performed, or at least read aloud. Reading plays is like reading screenplays for tv shows and considering it literature. I shudder to think that one day centuries from now, transcripts from Jerry Springer might be read as part of the 20th/21st century American Literature class, or even Star Trek.
Yes, being literate is important, but why is it that reading for entertainment is viewed as better than watching tv or playing video games?
When reading a book, you are being passively entertained. I guess more neurons are firing because you are supposed to be imagining everything that is going on in the book you are reading, so it generally more active than tv. Part of the reason I stopped reading as much for pleasure as I did when I was younger is that I've noticed more and more books are just garbage, and that I am really lazy. The few times I have set out to read some classic, I have generally gotten bored, mostly due to minor changes in language and the writing styles of then vs now.
Granted, while I own a TV, I do not have cable or an antenna. And the few times I have watched tv I just end up tuning it out and doing something else, as tv seems to more garbage filled than the pulp masses lining the walls of BN.
And as an aside. Hamlet and other works of the Bard aren't meant to be read, they are meant to be performed, or at least read aloud. Reading plays is like reading screenplays for tv shows and considering it literature. I shudder to think that one day centuries from now, transcripts from Jerry Springer might be read as part of the 20th/21st century American Literature class, or even Star Trek.
