In an article about the good deeds of E.D. Hirsch, the recently deceased American cultural literacy superstar Christopher Hitchens dropped alarming findings from a nationwide survey: "The chances of a 17-year-old American being able to say anything meaningful about Thomas Jefferson are disconcertingly slight. The chances of the same student knowing anything significant about Poe, or slavery, or of being able to translate the most elementary Latin ... or even being able to define the word 'ironic' are slighter still."
Published shortly after Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind and Hirsch's Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, Hitchens' New York Times piece drew references from a 1988 survey. Since the ensuing two decades have witnessed the explosive growth of the Internet and gadgets for every occasion, it is tempting to wonder about the cultural literacy of that former disappointing testsubject's teenage son.
A professional philosopher at Vancouver's Capilano University for nearly three decades and the author of more than 20 books that range from sexual politics (Buddies: Meditations on Desire, On Kiddie Porn) to Canadian politics (Fantasy Government, Delgamuukw), Chicago-born Stan Persky has been studying the data. He cannot be labelled an optimist.
Persky's latest work - which he calls a "jeremiad, as defined by the writer Brian Fawcett: as accurate a description as possible of the present situation" - expands his impressive range while remaining close to an ever-keen interest in the cultural landscape of the here and now.
Reading the 21st Century (McGill-Queen's University Press, $34.95) is dedicated primarily to significant books Persky respects and recommends. Across 13 chapters, Persky's lively discussion of 21st-century novels (such as Philip Roth's The Human Stain and Javier Cercas's Soldiers of Salamis) and nonfiction (including Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and Terry Glavin's Waiting for the Macaws) makes a compelling case for books readers may have missed. He also effortlessly illustrates the cultural merit of books themselves and the role reading them plays in creating an informed, thoughtful, and capable citizenry.
Sandwiching those chapters, however, are 16 pages: Persky's introduction and conclusion. "In the Twilight of Literary Criticism" and "Code Red" are, as their titles suggest, cautionary, even alarmist. Persky's concern? A decline in serious reading that's coinciding with a worldwide fascination with touch screen games, YouTube trivia and Facebook updates.
Reading isn't just a pastime for Persky. He writes, the "social purpose of reading books is to become a more effective participant in creating a better world" and that certain books (none of them tracking the adventures of teenage wizards or vampires) "can provide a sufficiently sustained reading experience that makes possible informed engagement with the political, cultural, and moral issues of our time." Without reading, then? Perhaps the grim future of Idiocracy.
Published shortly after Allan Bloom's Closing of the American Mind and Hirsch's Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, Hitchens' New York Times piece drew references from a 1988 survey. Since the ensuing two decades have witnessed the explosive growth of the Internet and gadgets for every occasion, it is tempting to wonder about the cultural literacy of that former disappointing testsubject's teenage son.
A professional philosopher at Vancouver's Capilano University for nearly three decades and the author of more than 20 books that range from sexual politics (Buddies: Meditations on Desire, On Kiddie Porn) to Canadian politics (Fantasy Government, Delgamuukw), Chicago-born Stan Persky has been studying the data. He cannot be labelled an optimist.
Persky's latest work - which he calls a "jeremiad, as defined by the writer Brian Fawcett: as accurate a description as possible of the present situation" - expands his impressive range while remaining close to an ever-keen interest in the cultural landscape of the here and now.
Reading the 21st Century (McGill-Queen's University Press, $34.95) is dedicated primarily to significant books Persky respects and recommends. Across 13 chapters, Persky's lively discussion of 21st-century novels (such as Philip Roth's The Human Stain and Javier Cercas's Soldiers of Salamis) and nonfiction (including Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and Terry Glavin's Waiting for the Macaws) makes a compelling case for books readers may have missed. He also effortlessly illustrates the cultural merit of books themselves and the role reading them plays in creating an informed, thoughtful, and capable citizenry.
Sandwiching those chapters, however, are 16 pages: Persky's introduction and conclusion. "In the Twilight of Literary Criticism" and "Code Red" are, as their titles suggest, cautionary, even alarmist. Persky's concern? A decline in serious reading that's coinciding with a worldwide fascination with touch screen games, YouTube trivia and Facebook updates.
Reading isn't just a pastime for Persky. He writes, the "social purpose of reading books is to become a more effective participant in creating a better world" and that certain books (none of them tracking the adventures of teenage wizards or vampires) "can provide a sufficiently sustained reading experience that makes possible informed engagement with the political, cultural, and moral issues of our time." Without reading, then? Perhaps the grim future of Idiocracy.
Acknowledging there's been a remarkable technological revolution in communication since the 1980s, Persky also asserts that research "indicates there's been a gradual, slow decline in reading and knowledge skills since 1975. I haven't seen any books challenging the data. I take the decline in reading and reading competence to be a symptom of the condition of encroaching ignorance."
Persky claims additionally that "writing is flourishing; reading is in big trouble" - "The data concerning digital device usage indicates that most of it (especially for those in the 18-29 demographic) is used for text messaging, iPods and to access the content of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, video games, porn, etc. My sense is that there was an expansion of practical literacy in North America from the end of the Second World War to the mid-1970s ... and a general decline since then, a decline masked by the glitter of the technological revolution we're in the midst of. Yes, the devices provide more access than ever before to information and knowledge, but that's not what they're mostly used for."
In regard to champions of the Information Superhighway who proclaim younger generations are instead learning a new kind of screen literacy, Persky is skeptical.
"It's technically possible that people are capable of informed engagement without serious reading, but so far I haven't seen much evidence of it in North America. It's possible for people to understand the world through good films and sundry other visuals, but in North America good films/good TV/good Internet is not what anyone except the familiar elite is watching. There's a more complex debate about the differences between sustained reading and visual culture, which suggests that reading produces a deeper experience. So, yes, I think thought bolstered and enriched by texts is better than visual culture alone."
Like climate change, the looming crisis is difficult to miss. Similarly, the course-correcting response is a puzzler. Persky's book concludes with a mention of "Beckettian despair" about the future in part because we have "very little idea of how" to remedy the problem.
Taking time from reading (a biography of Kurt Vonnegut, Sherry Turkle's Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other and Ronald Dworkin's Justice for Hedgehog) and grading class assignments for the interview, he concedes, "Maybe (our era) is simply the early over-excited phase of the digital revolution and things will even out in the course of developments."
As for teachers, he expresses doubt: "Oh sure, what you and I do in classrooms encourages people to read books, but I don't think we're winning the 'good fight,' though we may be fighting it. Look, we're talking about the totality of a capitalist cultural condition."
Facetiously, he mentions the possibility of writing a Stephanie Myers-style vampire novel in which he sneaks in "debates between the cute werewolf and the cute vampire about the importance of reading and writing." For that future bestseller we'll have to wait.
Brett Josef Grubisic teaches composition and literature at UBC. His relationship with books is a happy one.
Persky claims additionally that "writing is flourishing; reading is in big trouble" - "The data concerning digital device usage indicates that most of it (especially for those in the 18-29 demographic) is used for text messaging, iPods and to access the content of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, video games, porn, etc. My sense is that there was an expansion of practical literacy in North America from the end of the Second World War to the mid-1970s ... and a general decline since then, a decline masked by the glitter of the technological revolution we're in the midst of. Yes, the devices provide more access than ever before to information and knowledge, but that's not what they're mostly used for."
In regard to champions of the Information Superhighway who proclaim younger generations are instead learning a new kind of screen literacy, Persky is skeptical.
"It's technically possible that people are capable of informed engagement without serious reading, but so far I haven't seen much evidence of it in North America. It's possible for people to understand the world through good films and sundry other visuals, but in North America good films/good TV/good Internet is not what anyone except the familiar elite is watching. There's a more complex debate about the differences between sustained reading and visual culture, which suggests that reading produces a deeper experience. So, yes, I think thought bolstered and enriched by texts is better than visual culture alone."
Like climate change, the looming crisis is difficult to miss. Similarly, the course-correcting response is a puzzler. Persky's book concludes with a mention of "Beckettian despair" about the future in part because we have "very little idea of how" to remedy the problem.
Taking time from reading (a biography of Kurt Vonnegut, Sherry Turkle's Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other and Ronald Dworkin's Justice for Hedgehog) and grading class assignments for the interview, he concedes, "Maybe (our era) is simply the early over-excited phase of the digital revolution and things will even out in the course of developments."
As for teachers, he expresses doubt: "Oh sure, what you and I do in classrooms encourages people to read books, but I don't think we're winning the 'good fight,' though we may be fighting it. Look, we're talking about the totality of a capitalist cultural condition."
Facetiously, he mentions the possibility of writing a Stephanie Myers-style vampire novel in which he sneaks in "debates between the cute werewolf and the cute vampire about the importance of reading and writing." For that future bestseller we'll have to wait.
Brett Josef Grubisic teaches composition and literature at UBC. His relationship with books is a happy one.
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Brett Josef Grubisic
No comments:
Post a Comment