Comments for On Reading Fiction at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 12 out of 12 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Thu, 23 May 2013 12:32:45 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-5422 Like Brad I sold some books at the Strand, but unlike him I bought some too. Currently I am reading The Free Fishers by John Buchan. I am finding this 1934 novel interesting, exciting, and entertaining. Good fiction travels through time. - Allen Roth Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:20:48 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4675 The corollary of children who have actual books in their homes doing better in school is that the seemingly unstoppable drive to convert more and more instruction to electronic formats will produce more poorly educated students. - Mark Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:40:57 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4671 P.S. I cannot afford Kindle, or I'd probably have one. Concerning friends...I'm a 74-year old loner. I do have a large extended family (somewhat too modern for my interests and companionship) and I still have many acqauintances...but I have few friends, and less time to gregariously "be friendly." Reading for "knowing" is precious to me. - Robert Ormsbee Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:37:45 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4670 Re: On Reading Fiction...This article intimated an effectual and resultant"superficial knowledge" from occupied cell-phone and electronic media activity. I wholly agree. Our world is existentially more complicated than the abbreviated, thoughts and opinions, so expressed on Facebook and in texting and airy cell-phone conversations. These media consist mostly of short-hand-like quips and two- or three-word phrases--intended mostly for agreement or disagreement of inane posts featuring incomplete and/or inaccurate information...as with "the blind leading the blind." As for "fiction" I do enjoy and appreciate the good stuff. However, I'm not inclined to search for it; so then, I don't often read fiction. I find that often, fictitious stories in print, movies, TV and video...tend to politicize and propagandize the personal opinions and views of the producers. This modern "trend," I feel, falsifies "reason and truth," and discolors the common good of society; and it certainly impedes human development and progress toward things of genuine goodness. Indeed, we live in "The Age of Misinformation." - Robert Ormsbee Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:08:58 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4658 I think part of the problem is in the attitude people take to fiction. It's not seen as something enriching or appreciated for being able to stretch your heart and mind. The only books generally looked to for inspiration are shelved under "Self-Help" in bewilderingly large book stores. I think it's common for fiction reading to be consigned to "unproductive" scraps of time and used as a distraction lest there be a moment when someone isn't doing something. Reading Fr. Schall's article and the comments sparked relief that there are other people who look at fiction and stories in general as food. It seems we are rare. These thoughts could stand further development, but, ironically, I don't have the time. - Michiganian Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:50:49 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4657 A few months ago, I was standing at a busy subway station, waiting for my bus home from work. Tucked under my arm were a copy of P.G. Wodehouse’s “Thank You, Jeeves” and a fat binder of materials for a class I was taking. (Wodehouse, by the way, makes for absolutely fantastic bus reading. He’s so funny that by the time I arrive home, I’ve invariably forgotten all about any workday stress.) As I waited, a gentleman about twenty-years my senior (I’m 29) walked up to me and said, “I didn’t know anyone your age read Wodehouse!” Eyeing the binder, he added, “Is this a school assignment?” When I told him that it was for pure pleasure, he gave me a quizzical look and then said something to the effect of, “Good for you! I didn’t know anyone from your generation still read for fun!” We got to chatting, and it turns out that the gentleman is a history professor at a local university. He lamented that very few of his students can put two coherent thoughts together on paper, and he’s realized that it’s because so few people read anything other blogs or Twitter. Most people don’t even read the newspaper anymore; they read quick snippets from RSS newsfeeds. And as we chatted, we observed that very few of the roughly 200 other commuters – and none of the commuters my age – had books with them. Most of them were occupied by gadgets, and few of those so occupied looked composed or even connected with their surroundings. I don’t think, however, that the cause of unpopularity of reading is specifically the cell phone so much as it is the ubiquitousness of technology in general, and not so much instant communication or gratification as much as it is constant distraction. Literature worth reading requires imagination, reflection, undistracted thought, etc. Who can delve into the realm of imagination if hours of television and movies have already provided you with mental images of the antics of Bertie Wooster or of Elizabeth Bennett’s classic refusal to Mr. Darcy’s proposal, for instance? With the constant beeping of e-mail alerts, who can really give enough attention to “Les Misérables” to understand Hugo’s moral points in the first place, let alone reflect on them? Technology isn’t bad, of course, but it has gotten to be so pervasive in our lives that our abilities to imagine and to devote attention to any one thing have atrophied. We can’t even seem to be fully present to each other, so how can we be present to a novel? We’re techno-gluttons, and because we’re filled to satiety with technology, we’ve allowed our taste and appetite for real mental food to dull. - T.D. Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:31:14 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4656 One of the best literary arguments I have read in support of reading books of all kinds is Ray Bradbury's _Fahrenheit 451_ -- although too often reductively considered to be a polemic against "censorship," that view ignores too much. I think Bradubury's novel is really an apologia of liberal education, as well as book-reading generally. With specific reference to reading "literature" in the strict sense (fiction & poetry), I believe that this kind of reading is the most potent because it feeds the moral imagination in a way that other kinds of books ("nonfiction") cannot. Plato knew this, which is why, in _The Republic_, he has Socrates make his biggest philosophical points by the use of parables ("myths") and "beautiful lies." - Lisa Nicholas, Ph. D. Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:22:19 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4654 This is not a dissent, just an observation based upon a coincidence. Tomorrow afternoon, my younger son and I will load up my car with ten large boxes containing at least 300 books and take them to the Strand in New York City to sell. I was chatting on the phone with Fred Bass, who runs the Strand, and he remarked that selling such a large number of books must mean I'm cleansing my soul. Actually I'm cleaning out my attic office, but I take the point. What's interesting to me is what I'm keeping: anything autographed; most of my theology and Church history (including all of my Schalls); and the handful of great novels I cannot imagine not being able to lay hands on whenever the spirit moves. These books and some wall photos of a few of their authors make the office a less lonely place than it otherwise would be. - Brad Miner Tue, 10 Aug 2010 07:19:45 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4653 What a beautiful essay by Fr. Schall. This reminded me of my studies at Chicago. When I was there, I wrote my thesis on Flannery O'Connor and prof. Wayne Booth was my advisor. It was prof. Booth who introduced me to the Aristotelian idea of friendship and how fiction, books are in essence our friends. Aristotle wrote that "without friends no one would choose to live, though he has all other goods" (Ethics, Book 8). Keeping with this tradition, prof. Booth wrote that "the quality of our lives was (and is) said to be in large part identical with the quality of the company we keep" ("The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction," 172). Continuing Fr. Schall's brilliant thought, who are our friends and how do we spend our time? Do we have reverence for books (and more importantly good stories) and do we yearn to learn what can they tell us? If our "friendships" are based on pleasure only and as Fr. Schall writes, superficiality, then how do we expect to grow, either intellectually or spiritually? In the end, this is not just about reading. The problem is not only about whether we know who Shakespeare or Goethe or Dostoevsky is. Fiction takes us outside of ourselves, into the community, into the recognition of human family. Something a cell phone communique will never be. - Emina Melonic Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:54:38 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4652 The upside, father, is that except for the clacking of computer keys and the occasional misbehaving child, libraries housing classic fiction in book form are so much less crowded these days making for much easier accessibility. For example, I just took out Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain," which according to the index card had last been checked out in 1984. The librarian told me, however, that they switched to computer circulation records in 2000 and at least one other person had taken the book in 2005. From 1973 to 1984, interestingly, this seminal work of fiction had been checked out over a dozen times -- an anecdotal indicator of the decline in reading great literature. With all the inane posting, chatting and texting going on, the library books are gathering dust, but for those of us who require a steady diet of fictional sustenance, the choices are plentiful. I don't have to worry that "David Copperfield," "Moby Dick," or other classics won't be available as was the case years ago when one had to get on a waiting list. As for Mann's masterpiece, inasmuch as it may take me a month to get through it, I'm sure an extension will be granted by the library because there will be nobody else waiting for it -- not, at least, for another five years or so. - Joe Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:53:39 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4651 Fiction is fundamentally about morality and moral outcomes. From the ancient Greeks to early Updike, fiction provided illumination (from below or above) on the features of moral tradition and culture. We now live in an age of inverted morality - an assertion that can be fortified by example if required. The illumination of inversion becomes ironic at best. Truth is in shadow. Fiction has lost its compelling purpose and has become just more floating debris on the current breaking wave. All is vanity. But hey! I write fiction so this is probably just sour grapes. - Joe Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:13:02 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2010/on-reading-fiction.html#comment-4650 I love how a Kindle advertisement stretches alongside this article, enticing me to cave. I will not. - Brian Tue, 10 Aug 2010 05:12:47 +0100