Scribbles & Munch

I recently came across a statistic* that deeply troubled me. (Although considering where I read it - a book entitled Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle - I really shouldn't be all that surprised.) The author claimed that a full third of U.S. high school graduates never read another book in their lives. Well, that was sad, but upon reflection it didn't surprise me all that much. No, what astonished me was his next statement: that 42% of U.S. college graduates never read another book in their lives.

      Correction: that didn't astonish me, it stunned me to the core.

      And the more I think about it, the more angry I become. Yes, angry. Before I go any further, I should point out that Chris Hedges, the author of the book that inspired this rage, notes BLAH, BLAH, and BLAH as his references, and I have not yet double-checked his claims. But he's a Pulitzer prize winner, so I'm assuming that somebody important already fact-checked the book,** and allowing myself to plunge freely into rant-hood.

      Nearly half of all U.S. college graduates never read another book in their lifetime. In their entire lives--not one book! Ok, non-fiction and the heavy language of literary classics aren't for everyone, I can understand a lot of people choosing not to pore over such works in their spare time, but I'm fairly sure these make up an ever increasingly small percentage of the books out there. Apparently, neither do these people read a cozy mystery, or a YA fantasy, or even a coffee-table book full of cat jokes! 

      At first I wasn't sure I really believed it. I pondered it this way and that, the way my statistics professors encouraged me to do. I thought about the different ways the researchers might have defined a "college graduate," and wondered about periodicals vs. books. But then I thought of a personal acquaintance of mine. The gentleman in question is a physician - a surgeon - who by all the contemporary standards of Western Civilization is a truly successful man. He's achieved high academic, familial, and physical goals. Financially he's living the American Dream, owning his own clinic with a large clientele, allowing him to work less than 30 hours a week and still own an enormous - and I mean ENORMOUS - house. I've visited his home, and it is not only handsome, it is large enough to comfortably host at least a dozen people, and everyone would have plenty of space. 

      And here's the thing: there's not a single book in the house. Not. A single. Book.

      When this realization struck me, I felt the full truth of that statistic. Because in no part of its definition does the ideal of Western success include reading.

      Maybe what this truly reveals is not the state of humanity, but the severity of my own sheltered existence. Because I grew up with books. My family's home literally had books in every room, except a couple bathrooms (note that I do not say "all the bathrooms"). My extended family read books. My peers and I were always reading something for school. And all of my friends - past and present - read. Which isn't to say they are all great readers. My husband, for example, is an undeniably intelligent man, but rarely reads for pleasure. I'd say maybe two or three times a year he'll find a book he really likes, and then rapidly consumes its content. Another few months will go by and the only things I'll see him read will be Slate articles and video game reviews. But he respects books, and one of our cherished dreams is to some day have a home large enough to contain a library: a room dedicated to housing the books we love, a shrine to the written word we can share with all our acquaintance.

      Now I am not so naive as to think that everyone shares this value. But apparently I was sufficiently ignorant as to think that everyone who bothered with higher education does, at least in part. And that's one of the things that angers me about this statistic: it feels as though I have been subjected to a lie. This lie was that people who go to college have at least some appreciation of knowledge for knowledge's sake, that these institutions of reason call to the intellectually minded, a siren song promising wisdom for all who are willing to do the requisite work. Even if that's not the primary reason for college, even if it's not what people take away from college, I thought this was a percentage of their drive. But of course not. Most people go to college to get better jobs, make more money. For them, the reading is at best a tool, and at worst a hurdle to be leapt o'er (or in some way avoided). And I think...what a waste. 

      What a waste of money. What a waste of time. What a waste of the efforts of all those teachers who dedicate their careers to furthering the knowledge of others. What a waste of buildings, of energy, and of books! And most of all - and I write this with a face screwed in disgust - what a waste of brains.

      I say a new system of academic funding is required. For each book read after college, the interest rate on your college debt should decrease. My debt would have been eradicated in less than half the time. You?

      The other thing that makes me angry is this sick, optional privilege of ignorance. Because in the United States, it is an option not to read. In other parts of the world there is no choice: either the materials are unavailable, or else the risks involved are terrifyingly great. Yes, risks--life and death risks. There are parts of the world where people are beaten, imprisoned, or even killed for reading. Get that? KILLED FOR READING. That Barnes & Noble you walk past in the mall? It is literally full of thousands of things that could result in someone being shot for possessing. That's the over-whelming bloat of our privilege. And it is also a privilege to casually ignore them, having that glut of material within easy reach and choosing instead to watch the latest episode of whatever reality show is popular right now.

      Don't get me wrong, I am not decrying the pleasures of other media. Haven't we already established I'm a regular movie goer and an unabashed anime geek? While my weekly hours of television viewing are about half the national average, they can be counted on both hands. But I would never give up reading in favor of watching more TV. It just doesn't fulfill me in the same way. It literally doesn't effect my brain in the same way. It's just not the person I want to be.

      I suppose a lot of people will read this and raise their eyebrows at my reaction to that 42%--either because of my vehemence or my surprise. Now that I've written out all my thoughts on the subject, I comprehend the near-sightedness of my assumptions. Like the majority of the human race, I based my beliefs about people on those around me, and I surrounded myself with people who reflected my own values. How utterly green of me. But this whole thing makes me want to curl up somewhere with a big chocolate bar and a copy of Fahrenheit 451. And it makes me want to read and surround myself with readers more than ever. Because I embrace reading the same way some people embrace a diet, or an exercise regime, or even a religion: it is a self-imposed ritual that I deeply, irrevocably believe will result in a betterment of the self. And I also believe that if more people did so, the world would be a better place.

**The book, incidentally, is very interesting, and warrants a discussion all on its own--but I'll wait until I've finished it.