Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
You may have answered your own question. Do you go back and reread the Hardy Boys now? If you do, what do you think of them?
We learn to read as young children, and the stuff we learn to read is stuff the folks who wrote it assume a young child can read and understand. Do we get stuck there because that's where we started?
Appreciation of literature is a learned skill, and like all other skills, it's gained by practice. I appreciate stuff now I wouldn't have appreciated as a teen or even as a young adult. I had the vocabulary, even then, to understand what I was reading, but lacked the experience and knowledge for it to connect with me. As I grew older and read more, I gained an understanding of what made a plot work, what made a character meaningful, and what made prose good.
I can read and enjoy works now I didn't care for when younger, because I've learned ways to approach it - hooks to hang my interest on, if you will - so that I can appreciate the work.
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Dennis
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I get what you're saying (I think), but my point with
The Hardy Boys was that back then, that was considered
children's (probably boys') books. Adults didn't read them. That's why I find the HP phenomenon (Or is it phenomena? I never remember.) so odd and disturbing. If it broadens peoples' horizons, that's great, but a lot of what I'm seeing is people waiting for the next installment of HP, or failing that, "the next HP".
And I think the problem is based in movies. By their very nature, movies center around visual sensations, rather than plot, and often at the expense of dialogue. Reading a book like you're watching a movie (if you know what I'm saying) gives someone only a surface assessment of the work, and the culture seems to be encouraging that kind of thing.
But then again, maybe I'm full of crap.
