Quote:
Originally Posted by astrangerhere
From The Guardian:
This just seems sad to me. There are fantastic works of science fiction that DO bear careful reading. The authors did not get into causes, but they do want to investigate further:
This just seems sad to me. There are fantastic works of science fiction that DO bear careful reading. The aIn a paper published in the journal Scientific Study of Literature, Washington and Lee University professors Chris Gavaler and Dan Johnson set out to measure how identifying a text as science fiction makes readers automatically assume it is less worthwhile, in a literary sense, and thus devote less effort to reading it. They were prompted to do their experiment by a 2013 study which found that literary fiction made readers more empathetic than genre fiction.
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Readers of the science fiction story “appear to have expected an overall simpler story to comprehend, an expectation that overrode the actual qualities of the story itself”, so “the science fiction setting triggered poorer overall reading”.
The science fiction setting “appears to predispose readers to a less effortful and comprehending mode of reading – or what we might term non-literary reading – regardless of the actual intrinsic difficulty of the text”, they write.uthors did not get into causes, but they do want to investigate further: |
What the heck does "predispose readers to a less effortful and comprehending mode of reading" mean? Does it mean that you can lay on your back on the bed and read without any sweating because of "less effortful" activity? Frankly that comment is worse than just silly.
Now a book may be written at a 5th grade level or lower, but that doesn't need to apply to any particular genre. Presidential biographies may be in the special section of the elementary school library or on a graduate study reading list and the writing level will be adjusted for the expected expertise of the reader.
By the way when I was in elementary school I disdained the stupid bios of famous people and searched far and wide in the giant room for better fare. They gave me
special permission (yes, a strange requirement, but necessary) to go into the area behind the Library Desk (with a real librarian those days) to find these books. At first I only got to do it when the librarian was busy or out of the room, but later they granted me access all the time.
It was only at the public library that I could find exhilarating and thrilling Science Fiction. Still I never had to expend any effort or sweat to get through those glorious tomes.