From: "Kevin Tarr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/dumbing_down_american_readers/ > > or > > http://makeashorterlink.com/?D2A513796 > > Since the article is free, I'm not posting it. The op-ed writer takes the > literary world to task for awarding bad but popular authors like Stephen > King. While I can understand his point, what is the list opinion: is it > better that more people read even if it's not highbrow works? Isn't this > the same argument used against comic books or rock n roll? > > Kevin T. - VRWC > I would say it's about evolution. The shifting of literature towards popular culture. In my opinion, anything that will encourage kids to read is a good thing, but I wonder if this trend will actually contribule to a common mindset. Many Steve King novels and Harry Potter books are turned into movies. Kids might, like most adults, succumb to the mindset "Why read the book when I can just watch the movie." >From the movie standpoint though, I am glad that the Harry Potter books are being made into movies. By converting books into movies, Hollywood is starting to take more chances and stepping away from the standard movie formula. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is 161 minutes (2 hours and 41 minutes) long. Before that movie, it was thought nearly impossible to hold a child's attention for a movie that long. Rarely does a movie for children have a story so developed, and never, within my experience, has a movie for children been so long. Hollywood needs to step out of the standard formula more often so that people that watch the movies might actually have their horizons broadened rather than pumped with the same mindless drivel over and over again. I will have to argue with the author of that article about Steven King's writing. Admitted, I have only read one of Steven King's books (_Regulators_ under the pen name Richard Bachman, which I liked until the last two chapters, which I hated), but if some of the movies based on some of his books are any indication ("Stand By Me", "The Shawshank Redemption", and "The Green Mile") his work isn't all bad. I wish I had the time to read those books, but I have other books to read and I have already seen the movies :-) . Do a few diamonds in the rough entitle Steven King to such an award? I really don't know, I would have to read more Steven King books to make such a judgement. Honestly though, any author that can sell books as well as he can, despite harsh crticism from so many people, deserves some kind of award :-) . Michael Harney [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
