Reading Wars
I love a good debate – especially one that shakes up our otherwise humble literary world. In this case, that’s literary with both the upper and lower case ‘L.’ This particular argument was spurred by world-renowned novelist Peter Carey, well-known for his Booker Prize-winning adaptation of the history of the Kelly gang, among other greats.
Carey gave the closing speech at Sydney Writers’ Festival this year and expressed one of his major fears regarding the future prospects of reading: as a nation, we are dumbing down. According to Carey, the more we seek out easily-entertaining, commercial books – or as Carey puts it, ‘cultural junk’ – over those classed as Literary or noteworthy, we are ‘literally forgetting how to read.’
After reading this, and as a bookseller, I admit nodding at the screen with immediate acknowledgement – I certainly sell my fair share of Stephenie Meyer each week. (Where’s my commission? Eh? Eh?) But a quick scan of the Top 10 this week from Bookseller & Publisher magazine showed similar evidence. It included: Spirit Bound: Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead; the entire Stieg Larsson Millennium crime trilogy, the first of which is currently showing at your local cinema; Our Family Table by Julie Goodwin – MasterChef winner of Season 1; and The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell, best-selling author of the Sex and the City series. Got it. We are sponging up the latest and greatest, and perhaps Carey would say, somewhat ‘philistine’ culture. But damn it’s popular.
While it warms my heart that there are people who care so passionately about the ultimate improvement of society, and not just any but our future generations of literary Australia, he takes it much further. Carey dreams of an almost Utopian realm where teachers are paid the big bucks merely for ‘loving Charles Dickens and passing that on to children.’ Again, sweet dreams they would be and a lot more teachers we would see! But to also hope that by next year, all children past the age of fourteen would be able to ‘understand and adore Shakespeare’, is a little rich. Pick the next fourteen-year-old you see and ask them to recite their favourite sonnet. Yeah right.
Opposing this argument, mass-selling popular fiction author Bryce Courtenay was asked to respond to Carey’s comments: ‘It’s absolute crap. A book has to stand between its own covers and you put it on your lap and if it doesn’t engage with you then it’s dead in the water. Now that goes for a classic as much as it goes for anything else.’ Again, I found myself nodding at this undoubtable fact. When we’re spending the dollars we’re spending these days on books, and given the little time many have to sit down and relax – we want to be guaranteed a good read. If I had a penny for every time someone asked for a book that would catch them with the first page or they’re gone… well, ask the publishers. They’re still looking. But really, if we look at recent figures, book sales, both online and in store, have definitely increased a considerable amount, with young adult novels topping the bestsellers. Harry Potter or not, our kids are definitely reading, and that’s a plus.
But hang on, what then is Courtenay saying about the canon, and I mean The Canon? All those books we were raised to believe we had to read? Some we got to, but the rest (James Joyce and Cervantes for me) that we haven’t gotten around to yet, is he saying – surely not – they’re not that important after all? We don’t have to blush each time we bump into some part of a conversation we just know we’d be much better at had we read that damn classic already?
Don’t worry, Courtenay elaborates, but it brings a whole new debate into question, and one that has done the laps on several occasions elsewhere already. He states: ‘There’s no such thing as popular writing versus literary writing. If I’m a popular writer then Peter Carey is an unpopular writer. If I’m a best-selling writer then he’s a worst-selling writer.’ Ouch.
I think we all know there’s a lot more to good writing than just measuring sales and this is the notion Carey wishes to preserve. Let’s hope future generations will be able to distinguish between the ‘cultural junk’ and the good stuff, or we’ll really begin to lose our culture of classics. They are canonised for a reason, will stand to be remembered for their brilliance and questioning their importance will cost you grief. And anyway, in case you disagree, without our historical gems, we’d have nothing to stray from in order to create something infinitely new.
On the other hand, as Courtenay says, who gives? At least we’re reading, and no, and not forgetting how at all. Merely choosing the stuff we know we will enjoy instantaneously. And hey, it’s a fast paced world and we need entertainment now.
If only we could merge these two great minds… I call it a tie.
What do you think?
Want more? Follow these links below.
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/dumb-and-dumber-says-carey-20100523-w42v.html
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/alr/index.php/theaustralian/comments/a1
openbookmelbourne
young1c
Wei
mattholmes29
szeling1972
tiffanybridger
Ahhhh reading, has a better form of entertainment ever been created? Ipad you say? Well, if it is reading an online novel via your Ipad then fine. What a great debate. To have children and men like my husband reading anything at all is a beautiful thing even if it is ‘cultural junk’. Non-readers or ‘lazy’ readers must start somewhere. To thrust a classic like my personal favourite, Shelley’s Frankenstien, into their hands is a risk. Many will be scared off reading forever and this is a sad, sad thing. Ease them into reading with something Carey would turn his nose up, have them love it and gradually enter the world of the words – well doesn’t this sound better? ‘Cultural junk’ has a purpose, a great purpose. You or I may not read it, but if if a surfing biography gets my husband reading, or a vampire tale gets my nephew reading, then where is the harm?
Totally agree with Lucy. Popular fiction is a start anyway. Teens may start to read from Twilight but they may change their taste at later stage of their lives. I think the same thing happens to TV and film industry as well. My friends who got cinema study degrees are always watching those documentaries and weird films, which I can’t bear for more than 10mins. However, they call the TV programs I watch “junk”/ “rubbish”. Sometimes I just feel so bad because I simply want something entertaining and relaxing to watch, and what’s so wrong about that?