If you ever watched a lot of American 1980s TV sitcoms, you probably saw several “Very Special Episodes.” In these episodes, little things like humor, characterization, and plot take a back seat (or maybe a ride in the trunk) to what are generally ham-handed attempts by aged, and usually pretty clueless, adults to impart very … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels: A Very Special Episode
Last time, we started looking at some hysterical letters by F. C. W. (who may very well be Francis Channing Woodworth) that were published in The Mother’s Magazine in the 1840s. Fourth on the list is “Moral Poisons: The Antidote,” which starts with the rather worrying sentence “Under the general caption of ‘Moral Poisons,’ I … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels: F. C. W., Poisonous Literature, and Cranky Letters to the Editor: Cruise Control
JT Crane isn’t alone in comparing novels to drugs. I was browsing merrycoz.org, which is where I’ve found a lot of the characters I’ve written about, when I found a couple of articles written by F. C. W. (quite possibly Francis C. Woodworth) published in The Mother’s Magazine, . In “Moral Poisons: The Antidote,” F. … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels: F. C. W., Poisonous Literature, and Cranky Letters to the Editor
Last time, I promised you some actual peer-reviewed academic research on romance novels, but then I immediately undermined both the words “peer-reviewed” and “academic.” Let’s get started right away by looking at “Love Means Never Having to be Careful: The Relationship Between Reading Romance Novels and Safe Sex Behavior”, in the Psychology of Women Quarterly. The … Continue reading The Kids These Days and the Novels: 2 Stoning 2 Romance
Picture yourself at a yard sale on a weekend morning. You can find used furniture, clothes and toys from kids who left home for college a few decades ago, some kitchen gadgets that were “As seen on TV” back in the 1980s, and so on. But what really has your spidey sense screaming is a … Continue reading The Kids These Days and the Novels: Stoning the Romance
Hannah More, a well-known philanthropist and playwright, author of one novel and many Evangelical moral tracts, saw the growth of novel reading as a serious threat. More is actually a really interesting and complex character, so before we chuckle at her silly ideas, let’s learn more about her. More was a strong believer in education. … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels: Hannah More and Novels as a Tool of Oppression
John Ruskin was a multi-talented artist, writer, drafter, and social thinker, as well as one of the top art critics of the Victorian age. He also had some goofy ideas about novels that, coincidentally, sound a lot like Coleridge’s. In his book The Elements of Drawing, Ruskin tries to teach his readers to develop their … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels: John Ruskin and the Case of Endangered Art
In Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge writes I will run the risk of asserting, that where the reading of novels prevails as a habit, it occasions in time the entire destruction of the powers of the mind : it is such an utter loss to the reader, that it is not … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels: Lake Poets vs. Edinburg Review
Right now I’m sure many parents would rather their kids spend less time playing video games or texting or whatever kids do these days and more time reading. Consider, for example, this Wall Street Journal article which complains about all the silly things the kids these days write because they don’t do enough of the … Continue reading The Kids These Days and The Novels
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE KIDS THESE DAYS AND GENERAL HAND WRINGING OVER THE FACT THAT THE WORLD HAS CHANGED SINCE WE WERE THE KIDS THESE DAYS There are lots of very good reasons to panic. How about these? Your guidebook says not to panic. Verdict: Be prepared to panic. You’re a cop one day … Continue reading The Kids These Days
