Our Dumb World indeed

Re: "On Campus, Vampires Are Besting the Beats"


To address the cynics first, it's true that you can't really judge what college kids are reading based on sales at the college bookstore. Those stores' sales are made up almost entirely of textbooks, other required reading such as novels and anthologies, cheap items in the "used" bin, and impulse buys. I think it's safe to say that these purchases of books about "hunky vampires or Barack Obama" fall into the last category -- if you're loading up on Advanced Economics or Theoretical Neuroscience, it's pretty easy to justify tossing in a brainless paperback and charging it to your student account.
But that aspect doesn't account for the larger issues. I graduated from college three years ago, and I remember "Harry Potter" beating out every single book for being most discussed outside of a classroom. Sure, we'd gush about our love for Lady Brett Ashley or moan about the tedium of Samuel Beckett, but virtually nothing of any real relevance or importance save presidential politics (the election of 2004 and Karl Rove's visit to our campus) was on the lips of any student, even English majors.
College students are self-obsessed, monomaniacal party machines who often lose articles of clothing in public places; they also spend more time than they would at a full-time job reading, researching and writing in-depth on a myriad of esoteric subjects; they really don't have any time or desire left over in their free time to read anything more complex than articles on College Humor. But why isn't just plain reading a part of these students' lives anymore? Before the Internet, political fanatics and subversive activists wrote books, and students read them, not because they loved to read, but because reading was a primary mode of communication as well as a way to pass time and stay engaged with the world. Reading and writing weren't considered chores or activities set aside out of necessity for a few hours a week, they were just a natural, cohesive part of society. Now, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone with an attention span long enough to finish anything other than headlines on Drudge. Strangely, in the Age of Information, real information is no longer relevant.
Which brings us to why people would rather read "Twilight" than something more fulfilling or even well-written (even king of pseudo-lit Stephen King hates Stephanie Meyer!). First, I think it has to do with trends 
—vampires are a phase that ebbs and flows, and this book came out at the right time and was able to target the optimal audience of tween girls (not to mention it probably half-assedly filled some gaps in the hearts of those in Harry Potter withdrawal). Second, I think there's a mentality, especially in parents, that any book is a good book—"Hey, as long as my kid is reading." This might apply to college students, as well, who think, "Hey, I'm reading a book not required for class! I deserve a medal!" But the third reason is the most problematic: People do not understand books. For some reason in the past few decades, society has divided volumes into "School Books" and "Fun Books," and the twain very rarely meet.
I was a writing tutor in college, and I could tell that virtually every student who walked into the writing center was in "School Book Mode." You could ask them what they thought of a book or a class, and they'd answer academically and dismissively. Even if it was a book like "Cat's Cradle," or a poem like "Howl," works that are extraordinarily stimulating, deep, and—most importantly—FUN. These students seem to think that if a book is required reading, for them or for any other student in the country, then it cannot be a Fun book, and therefore cannot be a Good book. They treat reading like a chore, and any other piece of trash they come across has infinitely more potential to be Good or Fun simply because of its non-school nature. Therefore, "Twilight" is popular because it's superficial, it talks to ignorant teenagers on their own level, it challenges and stimulates no one, and no school would ever dream of ever making it required reading.
This mentality towards education has infinite problems associated with it. It has to do with, in some cases, an omnipresent disconnect between a student and school that has existed as long as schools have, but in other cases, a rapidly growing trend of laziness brought about by society's glorification of instant gratification. It's easy to blame the Internet and to rail against Twitter and instant messaging for the downfall of literacy, but they're obviously a huge part of the problem—schools have already lost the war over handwriting to keyboards.
"There is nary a student in the classroom—and this goes for English majors, too—who wouldn't pronounce Stephen King a better author than Donald Barthelme or William Vollmann. The students do not have any shame about reading inferior texts," Professor Eric Williamson says. Well, where's the shame? It's time for illiterate kids and adults alike to rediscover the embarrassment of being ignorant.