Literacy and the literary - doesn't just apply to young children! (A literate generation?)

Name: MartynColebrook

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Product:	A literate generation?
Date:	06/05/02 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Indispensable tool for later life

Disadvantages: Doesn't seem 'fashionable' any more

It is certainly a dispiriting sign when we have to question whether we are members of a literate generation and, as a consequence, whether literature and reading still have a prominent and valued place in our society. From a personal perspective I was lucky to be brought up in a household where there was a great deal of emphasis and tradition placed on the necessity and importance of reading and writing, two features of my life that are now irreplaceable and have proved to be invaluable. What causes me the most anguish is to hear people uttering the claim that they 'don't bother with reading the book when there's a film of it to be watched' or to start asking 'what can you get from a book?' My normal answer is that not reading is living in our world, read a piece of fiction and you experience a wealth of different worlds - many better than our own!

There is a definite argument for the assertion that too many children have been seduced by the mass media attitude that, like ready-done meals, everything should be there in front of them in minutes without them having to forage for it. Gone are the days when reference books were potential goldmines in which the inquisitive could go in search for the answer to one question and return with a wealth of information about many other subjects. Instead it is now a case of typing a couple of words into the Internet (no criticism of dooyoo though!) and it seems that out come all the answers. As much as schools are able to actively encourage children to read for pleasure, they can only push this so far before it becomes evident that there is a greater pleasure found in chasing the latest video game character across the computer screen or sending some coded message to their friends' mobile phones. The government seems adamant that whilst 'literacy hours' should be promoted, they will refrain from giving money to improve the library since the school evidently needs more computers. In acco
rdance with this obsessive updating, the English Literature curriculum has been adjusted so studying Shakespeare may soon become optional. Call me outdated (as many people already do) but how can anyone justify removing one of history's finest exponents of language and fiction and still expect children to have any idea of our literary heritage (and someone who is still a significant influence on modern literature)? Some universities have made it possible to gain an English Literature degree without studying Shakespeare so where lies the hope for those who will be attending in later years? Maybe I'm digressing slightly but it seems that in this hyper-technological age there is a definitely far less emphasis placed on the benefits of devouring the contents of a book.

Reading the many book reviews on this site restores some of my faith in the interest and importance attached to reading but I still feel that we are in the minority. Major bookshops like Waterstones and WH Smiths still charge a comparatively extortionate amount of money for books, be it in the children or adult section and this can be off-putting if nothing else. However, this is where the Internet does have a significant advantage with more respectable prices at various web-sites. Whilst some libraries do promote their wares and advertise quite prominently, they are still seen as unfashionable places to go, (especially in those popularity dominated early teenage years) unless like me they offered a sanctuary from those people who didn't share your love of books or just plainly disliked you! It is unrealistic to expect uninitiated teenagers to fully enjoy the pleasures of reading Milton, Coleridge, Keats, Hardy and so on but part of the enjoyment can be seen in the challenge they offer. (many will probably now ask if they are members of the latest boy-band or have just won Pop Idols - or am I being really cynical?) I'm heavily in favour of giving children the opportunity to read a
nything, even though some of my more scathing reviews may suggest a certain amount of elitism, but it seems whenever you wax lyrically to people around you about the latest gem of a novel you've just read (Embers in my case - stunning) their apathy reveals that enthusiasm is quite simply wasted.

Literacy also includes the ability to write correctly and be able to express yourself clearly but how is it possible to instruct children correctly when many of the newspapers, news programmes and that wonderful language we now see in SMS are unable to reinforce it. Tabloids have always pioneered a different style of language but it is already creeping into the broadsheets, most notably when the columnist is writing with a focus that they seem determined to promote in the most conversational style possible. Maybe I'm out of touch (bearing in mind I'm 20!) but The Times and The Telegraph were always regarded as newspapers who adhered religiously to a formal style of writing, rather than embroidering that latest fashionable phrases into their articles. I'm not labelling all their journalists with this tag but there are a number who seem to be talking rather than writing their articles. Even as I explain this next point I can already feel the knives being sharpened but the nuisance that text messaging has become doesn't help literacy. As children get mobile phones earlier and are drawn in2 abbrv8ted msgs it becomes natural for them to write phonetically, but trying to distinguish between social communication and spelling in formal writing gets harder.

I've had to be careful not to descend into a rant with this because literature and literacy is a subject I'm extremely passionate about. I could certainly extend this by a few paragraphs but by now I think you've all suffered enough. I'll finish by revealing that two months ago The Sunday Times contained two extremely interesting articles, one explaining that the Booker Prize
winning novelist Arundhati Roy has now achieved the same cultural status as David and Victoria Beckham whilst schoolchildren are more interested in Will Young than William Shakespeare. As long as this trend continues it seems we are going to be fighting a losing battle - vive la Revolution!!

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