[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by khalleron

I'm reminded of the time I was visiting my favorite newstand when I lived in Pasadena. The clerk was complaining he'd been having a series of nightmares where he was brutally murdering German philosophers.

I told him his problem was that he was too d**m serious, and prescribed a course PG Wodehouse.

Philosophy and tragedy may make your mind 'deeper', but humor keeps it supple.

It's all about balance. As most things are.

I read books that are heavy-duty. Often I will plow through a book I don’t understand simply for the experience of stretching my mind. I read to learn and grow intellectually. Much of what I read is hard work.

If all my reading fell under the category of hard work, I would grow weary and probably give it up. That’s why I spice up my reading by alternating the heavy-lifting with things that are just pure fun. Yes, I read René Descartes, but I also read Woody Allen. I read Francis Bacon (hindered greatly by my lack of knowledge of Latin, which he’s always falling into), but I follow it with a book of jokes by Steve Allen. I read Sagan, Primrose, and Hawking, and then season them well with a hefty helping of Douglas Adams. I also try to get variety into my reading. I feel it helps me to be well-rounded.

Thomas Jefferson, as Humanities Scholar and Jefferson impersonator Clay Jenkinson frequently tells us, believed that a person’s diet should contain just enough meat to season their vegetables. For me personally, I think a literary diet should contain just enough fluff to make the heavier fare palatable.

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

… Question. Is a graphic novel literature?

It can certainly be art that is in no way inferior to literature, but whether telling stories with graphics is literature proper may be more of a technical question that is beyond my expertise to answer. Movies tell stories, but because the medium is different, movies are not considered literature any more than a book is considered a paper-movie.

Originally Posted by Jellby

The only problem with "comic book" as a term, is the possible ambiguity of the word "comic", some comic books are not comic at all.

Who the h-e-double-hockey-sticks ever thought it was a good idea to join the word “comic” with “book”? Even as a child, I hated that term.

Originally Posted by SpiderMatt

… I most certainly do think fiction can shape one's opinion, though. Even if you don't realize it, themes and values are communicated through fiction and the audience must reject or accept those themes at least on an unconscious level. That fictional story (whether it be film, book, or otherwise) then educates the audience about those themes or values. The view of the author or director becomes part of how you think about such values, even if you vehemently disagree with the portrayal.

...

Again, not claiming superiority here. This is not about being "better" or "worse" or "smarter" or "dumber." I'm just making the same argument that so many before me have made: there is inherent value in reading and what you choose to read is important.

Well said.

Sherlock Holmes said something similar in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, although I think he miscalculated the brain’s abilities to process and store new information. (It turns out that the attic’s walls are much more elastic that realized even a few short years ago.)

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."