tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post6732788378573490559..comments2024-02-05T10:41:31.777-05:00Comments on I Saw Lightning Fall: The McKays on Why Men Should Read FictionLoren Eatonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-44923180892289429382012-07-15T15:52:19.602-04:002012-07-15T15:52:19.602-04:00CR,
Other random question: how often is "del...CR,<br /><br /><i>Other random question: how often is "delight" tied to the exercising (and developing) our own talents? ... If books are to truly delight us, I think we need to get beyond seeing them as "mere entertainment," and start seeing the act of reading as akin to sports, hunting, beer-making, or any other delightful activity that requires the careful and sophisticated use of human skill.</i><br /><br />That's a really good point. I derive a great deal of pleasure from parsing books -- figuring out the author's intent, looking at the techniques he used, deciding what it can teach me about my own writing. It's fun. It's work. It's both!Loren Eatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-47897043981287153422012-07-15T15:50:10.016-04:002012-07-15T15:50:10.016-04:00F.T.,
Have you ever read John Christopher's T...F.T.,<br /><br />Have you ever read John Christopher's <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-White-Mountains-John-Christopher/dp/0689856725/ref=la_B000APHT8Q_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342381753&sr=1-1" rel="nofollow"><i>The White Mountains</i></a>? I've found it an excellent way to interest boys in lit. It has action, intrigue, mystery, all sorts of good stuff.Loren Eatonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12488412683340389286noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-80103828677478885162012-07-13T13:43:37.603-04:002012-07-13T13:43:37.603-04:00Other random question: how often is "delight&...Other random question: how often is "delight" tied to the exercising (and developing) our own talents? I enjoy making beer, playing first-person shooters, and home renovation partially because they represent both tests of my skillset and opportunities to broaden my expertise. Often, it seems, the deepest pleasure in literature is when it feels equally "challenging" in one way or another.<br /><br />Sure, there's always a limited delight in watching a likable hero emerge victorious over a wicked villain. But I get much more involved when I get to work for my entertainment--either matching wits with Phillip Marlowe, trying to understand the dark implications of Frodo's moral failure, or puzzling together the opaque and Borgesian fragmented stories of Jeff VanderMeer or Gene Wolfe. <br /><br />If books are to truly delight us, I think we need to get beyond seeing them as "mere entertainment," and start seeing the act of reading as akin to sports, hunting, beer-making, or any other delightful activity that requires the careful and sophisticated use of human skill.Chestertonian Ramblerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01550643992523840950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-76980307763926699422012-07-13T13:33:12.253-04:002012-07-13T13:33:12.253-04:00I wonder if the less male readership is a reflecti...I wonder if the less male readership is a reflection of the masculinity of Hollywood? Superhero movies seem to be the flavor of the decade, replacing, say, the 90's balance between crazy action movies and crazy romantic comedies. So we have a gradient from Avengers (men have fun beating each other up for fun and profit) to Nolan's Batman series (an almost Virgilian celebration of one man's ability to bear the burdens of his society.) That's a lot of grist for men trying to figure out what it means to be masculine in our present environment, so maybe men just don't feel they need to turn to the written word for examples or entertainment. <br /><br />If women are more hard-wired and/or socialized to thrive on complex interpersonal and social relationships, well, about the only place where that shows up is in books. Virginia Woolf argued that the novel (as opposed, I think, to the adventure story) was primarily a women's genre. Since then, Hollywood has figured out how to bring adventures to the wide screen, but has abandoned the more psychological form of the novel.Chestertonian Ramblerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01550643992523840950noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4025264318423694875.post-12634224442001325812012-07-13T07:41:15.833-04:002012-07-13T07:41:15.833-04:00Fiction challenges the brain, I think.
Great post...Fiction challenges the brain, I think.<br /><br />Great post. It's topic dear to my heart, because I write for tween boys. I hope those of us middle-grade and YA will be able to keep guys' attention in fiction; it seems the loss of interest starts during the teen years.YA Sleuthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371132883359264412noreply@blogger.com