The Classics Vs. Twilight

Reading popular fiction like Twilight gives us the same amount of knowledge and benefits as reading the classics like Pride and Prejudice.

            Reading popular fiction like Harry Potter or Twilight helps increase the desire to read. As seen in Dr. Ruth Cox Clark’s piece “Older Teens Are Serious About Their Series: Forensic Mysteries, Graphic Novels, Horror, Supernatural, and Chick Lit Series” we see that book series, such as manga, are bring teens back into the literary world.  Manga is “a Japanese genre of cartoons, comic books, and animated films, typically having a science fiction or fantasy theme and sometimes including violent or sexually explicit material” (New Oxford American Dictionary).  Clark, associate professor at East Carolina University, finds that “the ready availability of graphically formatted, serial reading materials, such as the multitude of manga series now being published, has brought many teenage boys – and girls- back to reading, some of them resistant readers for years.” Even something as basic as comics can bring teens who haven’t been reading back into the good graces of reading. This is wonderful because it is helping these students do better in school.  

Commenting on Who Cares if Johnny Can't Read?

I commented on CEC's blog about MacFarquhar's piece. I believe that yes even though Americans are not reading the "classics," we should still be proud that we are reading even if it is popular culture books like Twilight and Harry Potter. Also I believe that books do help you visualize better than movies do just because it is part of you that one puts into their characters when they imagine the characters in a book, thus the reader can relate and enjoy the book more. 

Twittering to a Different Tune

As I was looking through the Yahoo Entertainment section, I found an interesting article that caught my eye. "Keira Knightley 'Hates' Twitter and Facebook." The article basically quotes her as saying she "hates the Internet." The article goes on to talk about what she is obsessed with, her new movie, etc. I was intrigued because of what we have been studying in class and because she is one of the first stars to speak out against sites like Twitter and Facebook. But Knightley makes a good point, why do we need to be connected all the time?

I know that when I go to South Carolina to visit family, it is very unlikely that I am able to check my email or look at my Facebook, or even when I go home, I barely look at my computer, let alone get on it. Why though at school do I need to be continually checking everything? I guess it is because it is the way I keep up with friends at different schools and my family and classes. 

Maybe we are becoming "dehumanized" as Knightley so sweetly put it. Maybe we do spend too much time on the Internet when we should be outside enjoying the sun on days like today. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Commenting on CEC's Blog

I commented on CEC's blog about Bauerlein's discussion of "Bibliophilia." I believe that high school and college have both contributed to the decrease in reading. Both institutions have made reading into a chore with having students close/critical reading. This transfers over everyday life and takes the fun out of reading. People still want to read but they want to do it and not think about what they are reading. They just want the pure enjoyment.