Bookmark Now reading
Harvard Book Store had a reading tonight in support of the new paperback Bookmark Now: Writing in Unreaderly Times, an anthology of essays by youngish authors setting out to prove that literary writing is still fun to make and exciting to read.
The publishing of Bookmark Now took on a marketable urgency after the National Endowment for the Arts’ petit squab report on Americans’ declining reading habits. Magazines and blogs made much hay of all this when the report came out last year, and as Bookmark Now attests, it is still duly carted out any time someone needs to vent about books not being read.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with the NEA report, though. While I can’t question that time spent reading has declined (as has time for every other activity, given the entertainment options we now enjoy), if the NEA’s intention was to motivate people to read more literature, the report effects the opposite.
Bookmark Now‘s editor, Kevin Smokler, said he cobbled his anthology together to remind people that reading literature is relevant and, in many respects, a uniquely enjoyable experience . Good! The NEA’s survey, on the other hand, looked for connections between reading literature and going to concerts, visiting museums, volunteering, etc. In other words, the NEA equated reading literature with being a cultured person. That line of thought works great to sell liberal arts programs. But don’t try to sell it to the American market at large. It’s elitism. And if there’s one thing the average American can’t stand, it’s being told they’re below average.
—Andrew
