MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Change Your Mind (On the Reading of Junk)

dmaul1114 · 02-12-2010, 10:44 PM

To go a bit futher, what I mean is I don't much care whether someone only fictional reading is fantasy, romance etc., or whether they're mixing in classics and "serious" literature.

I care that they're making effort to build their knowledge and intellect in someway and just not living a life devoted to working a mindless job and filling their head with entertainment (whether highbrow or low brow) in their spare time.

I don't think fiction plays a large role in building intellect or knowledge. It may build vocabulary and verbal IQ, but that's only worth something if you use it to build your knowledge and intellect in other areas with factual information, science, theory etc. etc. etc.

As such I just think it silly for people like Hazlitt to be snooty about what fictional reading a person does. I care MUCH more about how their building their factual knowledge and developing their intellect.

02-12-2010, 10:44 PM	#132
dmaul1114 Wizard Posts: 2,300 Karma: 1121709 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Amazon Kindle 1	To go a bit futher, what I mean is I don't much care whether someone only fictional reading is fantasy, romance etc., or whether they're mixing in classics and "serious" literature. I care that they're making effort to build their knowledge and intellect in someway and just not living a life devoted to working a mindless job and filling their head with entertainment (whether highbrow or low brow) in their spare time. I don't think fiction plays a large role in building intellect or knowledge. It may build vocabulary and verbal IQ, but that's only worth something if you use it to build your knowledge and intellect in other areas with factual information, science, theory etc. etc. etc. As such I just think it silly for people like Hazlitt to be snooty about what fictional reading a person does. I care MUCH more about how their building their factual knowledge and developing their intellect. Last edited by dmaul1114; 02-12-2010 at 10:50 PM.