Katie-Ellen
Full Member
Do we think Mr Lugubrious Chops is on the mark? I read most, not all of the 'great classics' whilst at school, though mostly not at school. I was given books every birthday and for Christmas, that was what I wanted, and drawing materials, and I felt a happy, lucky girl to get them. Our house was full of books, there was no such thing as YA. Reading Henry Treece 'Electra' at 11, for instance, the lesbian thing, which was subtle anyway, went over my head but mostly, I 'got' Electra, and the horrific 'The Green Man' though again, I didn't quite figure exactly what had been done to Sibbi.
So, as we do, passing along whatever goodie I offered books to my daughters throughout their childhood. One bit at the bait, the other didn't, or hasn't as yet, beyond the 'Goosebumps' series. She likes her stories bite size, and funny or frightening, and watches Vines. One still reads for pleasure, especially demolishes anything by Stephen King or Joanna Trollope, but they both find anything written in the eighteenth or nineteenth century just too slow, and the language a barrier, that aged 13 I barely noticed in reading, being immersed in ,say, 'Old St Paul's, by Harrison Ainsworth, or 'Moby Dick,' or 'Far From The Madding Crowd.'
They each have their crop of 3 A Levels and more, including English Literature.
Sometimes we went to museums, fusty and dusty. Later I worked in a few. Got in trouble once for insisting on dusting the Buddha. Therese were places free to visit, that invited a long slow look at all manner of curious things in cabinets. Now, museums are more fun, let's push buttons and make things happen, don't let the kiddies ger bored... but has something been lost in the mix?
What I...what lots of us here maybe had that they didn't have was emptier Sundays, no shops open, centre of town dead, eating places mostly closed. We had empty time especially in winter, those long rainy Sundays . Bad weather, rubbish telly, books to read. Maybe that, besides IT is something to do with it. Neither is what you'sd call 'intellectual' but they each have their crop of 3 A Levels and more. What's happened between one generation and the next...a significator of lifestyle changes across the board, or of education, or is it just down to natural differences between one person and another, no big deal; readers will always read. Writers will always write.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/03/fate-literary-culture-sealed-internet-will-self
So, as we do, passing along whatever goodie I offered books to my daughters throughout their childhood. One bit at the bait, the other didn't, or hasn't as yet, beyond the 'Goosebumps' series. She likes her stories bite size, and funny or frightening, and watches Vines. One still reads for pleasure, especially demolishes anything by Stephen King or Joanna Trollope, but they both find anything written in the eighteenth or nineteenth century just too slow, and the language a barrier, that aged 13 I barely noticed in reading, being immersed in ,say, 'Old St Paul's, by Harrison Ainsworth, or 'Moby Dick,' or 'Far From The Madding Crowd.'
They each have their crop of 3 A Levels and more, including English Literature.
Sometimes we went to museums, fusty and dusty. Later I worked in a few. Got in trouble once for insisting on dusting the Buddha. Therese were places free to visit, that invited a long slow look at all manner of curious things in cabinets. Now, museums are more fun, let's push buttons and make things happen, don't let the kiddies ger bored... but has something been lost in the mix?
What I...what lots of us here maybe had that they didn't have was emptier Sundays, no shops open, centre of town dead, eating places mostly closed. We had empty time especially in winter, those long rainy Sundays . Bad weather, rubbish telly, books to read. Maybe that, besides IT is something to do with it. Neither is what you'sd call 'intellectual' but they each have their crop of 3 A Levels and more. What's happened between one generation and the next...a significator of lifestyle changes across the board, or of education, or is it just down to natural differences between one person and another, no big deal; readers will always read. Writers will always write.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/03/fate-literary-culture-sealed-internet-will-self
and I agree about Dickens, gaaahhh never could stand the Pumblechookiness. I don't think it's a bad thing, though you've consumed the product, digested it at the time and now if you spit it out, you know what you're spitting out. Not like a teen reacting to the sight of a book like a vampire to garlic, unless it's a Harry Potter. I bought one of those, once, read it at bedtime to eager child, nearly bored myself to sleep.
Literature changes as society does, no? And it's all so subjective. Always was, still is, always will be. 
