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By Marty Kelley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 6, 1998

Reasons for reading


To the Editor:

As Mark Twain might say, Ezekiel Buchheit's report of the death of American literature (Feb. 4) is greatly exaggerated. Mr. Buchheit contends rather unequivocally that "The Great American Novel is dead," and that "mindless fluff" has driven out all vestiges of greatness in American literature.

Mr. Buchheit is absolutely right to worry about mega-bookstore chains. They are indeed driving small, independent booksellers out of business and pushing publishers to market glitzy best-sellers to the lowest common denominator. However, he need only glance at any week's New York Times Book Review for reassurance: despite all the fluff out there, Americans are still willing to buy a good, thoughtful book. This week, for instance, Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison's Paradise is among the top ten best-sellers. Surely Mr. Buchheit wouldn't claim that Ms. Morrison writes "mindless fluff"?

True, Tim Clancy's techno-porn or Anne Rice's necro-schlock invariably outsell capital-"L" Literature, but there is nonetheless a healthy and vibrant market for outstanding fiction. Ironically enough, this market is getting a significant boost by the decidedly non-elitist Oprah Winfrey, whose book club has stimulated sales and vigorous discussion o works by Toni Morrison, Kaye Gibbons, Maya Angelou and other non-fluffy authors.

Finally, I can't quite see why anyone would be motivated to seek out great literature by Mr. Buchheit's "eat your Brussels sprouts" tone in this column. Why should the average reader want to read a "great book" if it is, as Mr. Buchheit puts it, "one you read for classes and groan over" or which is full of "pages describing each individual blade of grass in a town's small common"? Hell, I teach literature, but I'd run screaming from any text offering only that sort of tedium.

Instead of admonishing us to read weighty "great books" because they're supposed to be good for us, Mr. Buchheit might have adopted a strategy from (egad!) Oprah: offer some examples of texts that he found challenging and engaging, and share his enthusiasm for them. He mentions The Grapes of Wrath, which is indeed an excellent book, but doesn't let us know why we ought to read it.

Encouraging people to read better books is admirable, but portraying such reading as arduous work is unlikely to send many people running to the bookstores.

Marty Kelley
Graduate student, Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of English

 


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