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Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 32
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 07:54 am: | 
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http://books.aalbc.com/feb2004.htm
Looking at the fiction section (ignoring the obvious trend previously discussed) we also see that almost all of the 10 books are self published or published by a very small publisher.
I like this particular trend.
It should go without saying that I'm not trying to disparage major publishers -- they bring to market some incredible titles.
What I am saying is that self-published authors can now be players in the market and compete agaisnt the big boys. In some cases this is despite a good editor, a marketing budget, etc.
Overall, when it is all said and done, I think the industry and reading public will benefit.
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Chrishayden
Newbie Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 9
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 04:43 pm: |
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Troy:
I haven't read every book on the list. What I do like is that it is so diverse, running the gamut from funk to factual.
I have in my hand at this moment, by the way, evidence that someone that you know has a story in Chocolate Flava. |
Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 30
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 08:22 pm: |
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Hello All,
Allow me to be the rain cloud on this little parade. You all know my tastes by now, so what I'm about to say should come as no surprise but, some of those books on that list, frankly, I couldn't stand them. Troy, I agree that many of the self-published books are playing on the same field as the big boys. And many of them are turning out the same kind of product as the big boys too and I don't see that as a cause for celebration. Actually, its quite sad. If these books were on the same par as say The Known World, well, hell, break out the champagne, but that is not the case. While it is good that the reading audience are finding, buying, and reading these books, some of these authors should still try and find A GOOD EDITOR, study their craft, read GOOD books, and have my permission to think an orignial thought, rethink an worn out thought, and finally, recognize that the reading audience is as smart as they are. |
Cynique
Veteran Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 70
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 10:29 pm: |
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Thumper, do you really think average buyers are as smart as the writers of the trite, dumbed-down books they purchase?? Apparently the mass reading audience wants their "art to imitate life." These people like a lot of juicy melodrama and prefer happy endings, and if they're hip-hop, they don't have a problem with bad editing and a lack of proof-reading. Thumper's Corner draws a lot of literate discriminating people, but they are not typical of this new breed of black readers. |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 34
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 01:30 am: |
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Thump, my man, have a little patience. We in the infant stages right now. Shoot even this site was not so hot when we first started check out http://aalbc.com/aalbcmemorylane.htm.
Many of these authors are learning as they go. The success of their books is what will sustain them and allow them to come back stonger the next time. See the key here is that there will be a next time. If was not that long ago when there wasn't even a first time.
Granted anyone that is solely interested in "blowing up" and not serious about the craft of writing will never produce a "Known World".
However, things get better for the consumer when there are more choices in the market place -- not less. Sure you may not like these books, but obviously others do and they are voting with their dollars.
I'm also glad to see some of our folks getting paid and enjoying some level of independence.
Ultimately time will tell, but right now this looks like a good thing.
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Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 35
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 01:42 am: |
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Cynique consider that some of the "literate discriminating people" you refer to are buying and reading these books.
As far as the bad editting. I doubt if the average person would pick up many of the errors. Just finished a book in the genre that had many places where the wrong word was used "forward" used instead of "foreword". I'm not convinced the average American would get tripped up reading this (though I may be more Cynique than you). As a result, I don't think lack of editting has as big an impact on the average Joe as it does on you or Thumper.
Troy |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 62
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 03:47 am: |
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Troy...i don't know if things get better or are there more choices of mediocrity? But of course, it is an industry... |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 36
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 09:08 am: |
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Yes, Yukio there will be more choices in mediocrity. Even this over abundance of mediocrity benefits the majority of the population. This is what they enjoy reading.
Over time some of these readers will evolve and graduate to more sophisticated books which will drive the demand for higher quality books.
The publication of more books that people want to read leads to more people reading, which leads to even more books.
All of these books have to compete for readers which will ultimately drive the creation of better and a wider variety of books. This would not have happened without the self-publshed author taking advantage of lower barriers of entry.
This is win-win tread, you'll see.
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Cynique
Veteran Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 74
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 10:52 am: |
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As a writer who experimented with self-publishing I'd be the first to tout it. And I guess the bottom line is that reading is a very personal experience, and people read for different reasons, so we can't really characterize the typical reader. It's all about whatever "floats a person's boat"! |
Cynique
Veteran Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 75
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 11:01 am: |
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On second thought, I don't know if I'd give a blanket endorsement to self-publishing. My point being that just because a book isn't accepted by a big publishing house doesn't mean it's not a good book, so self publishing does become an option here. But self-publishing also opens the flood gates for a deluge of bad books written by people who are probably better swimmers than writers. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 63
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 11:25 am: |
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troy:
What you say has never happened...people are taught to love "quality" books and this occurs in school; others evenually appreciated "literary" books through a deeper interest in an author then they usually branch out, but the market doesn't lead writers to work harder at their craft. They have always been a small population of "writers" and a large pop. of commercial writers. Your formula for the characteristics of the market don't apply to books.... |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 37
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 01:42 pm: |
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Yukio, people are not taught to love "quality" in school, they are taught to appeciate it. This is an important distinction - and is really a different issue.
What you say "has never happened" happens everyday. We all make choices both big and small to satisfy some individual need. The key word is "individual". Now your definition of quality may be different than mine. In fact, Yukio your own definition of quality will probably be very different tomorrow than it is today.
When we make a decision to buy a book; that desicion, as Cynique suggested, is very personal. Sure there may be some influence based upon what you learned in school, but a person typically buys a book that will satisfy their need -- whether that need is entertainment, knowledge, investment or even status.
The number of books being published by Black authors has increased substaintially. That combined with the fact that sites like AALBC.com help you to learn about these books much more easily greatly increase the number of books from which you may select to read(Yeah I know that was shameless self promotion, but it is true).
Now we can only read a certain number of books, given that we have more choices we will naturally try to choose the book which best suits our need. This creates competition among authors to produce the book that you will chose out of all the others that are available.
Conversely, if there are less books available or the available books that don't satisfy a need; we will either settle for the bad book or not buy a book at all and go watch HBO. Either way we are worse off than if there were more books to chose from.
Do you still feel the same way?
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Chrishayden
Newbie Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 13
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 03:18 pm: |
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I agree with Troy and Cynique. More people read The Amazing Spider-Man in a month than have read most literary works over their entire publication lives I'll wager--what with Spidey doing 100,000+ a month. There is absolutely nothing anyone will ever be able to do about it.
Most people read for escape. Literary reading is work. The success of the you go girl books are probably subsidizing The Known World and Erasures. Rub them out and, like Troy is saying you wind up watching HBO |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 66
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 04, 2004 - 06:29 pm: |
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Troy:
Your first point is valid, and one i agree with...., ie the difference between appreciation and love. In fact, i used them as synonyms and they are not...
I'm not sure if we understand eachother. When i meant that never happens, at least as it pertains to books, is that mass production and variety does not produce better or more "quality" books.
I call what you described a formula. Increased commodity production + competition= better commodities....
Now, this is consumer driven, and in the case of this population, what we have are a variety of literature that may improve the quality of writing in the Zane genre....this means that folk will produce more fiction about sexual exploits and sexcapades that will be edited; will demonstrate some imagery, metaphor, and even sentence variety.....remember, we are not talking about computers or cars.....
Chrishayden, welcome back and i think my point is yours, which is there are many more books for black readers but they are primarily interested in commercial fiction, which is their prerogitive... |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 40
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 05:50 pm: |
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Yes Yukio we may be talking about slightly different things. I'll use your Zane example to illustrate the difference.
Lets take the "Zane Genre" (this will probably become a techincal term soon). We know this is a popular genre. We know more books are being published in the space. The reason this stuff is popular is because it is not literary in nature. Anybody who tries to make this stuff too literary is will not be as successful.
See, you are equating literary work with quality. There is nothing wrong with that, but for the audience who voriaciously consumes the "Zane Genre" literary work is not high on their value system. The "quality" in this sense is fact the "sexcapades".
So for someone whose value system is the sexcapade these folks will get better books (edited, more widely available, more selection, more authors, etc).
Now eventually, even this genre will run it's course. The genre will morph into other things. As authors try to continue to earn a living and sell more books that people want to read. The self-published author is free to try something a major publisher would not risk.
The new novels may become more base or they may become more literary. The resulting books may appeal to different or even a broader. Either way, more people will get more and different books to read.
The major publsihers are publishing gansta fiction because of the self published author -- not the other way around. While you may not be the immediate beneficiary -- many, many other people are benefiting today -- and I think you will benefit tomorrow.
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Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 32
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 05, 2004 - 10:07 pm: |
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Hello All,
I guess I have been on both sides of the discussion between Troy and Yukio. Yukio, I have to disagree with you on your point when Troy wrote "Over time some of these readers will evolve and graduate to more sophisticated books which will drive the demand for higher quality books."
Yukio replied "What you say has never happened...people are taught to love "quality" books and this occurs in school; others evenually appreciated "literary" books through a deeper interest in an author then they usually branch out, but the market doesn't lead writers to work harder at their craft."
Well, it most certainly has happened and happens quite often. I'm a prime example. Right now, if you go to my mother's house, in my old room (the she had the nerve to convert to an office) are romance novels, 12 shelves of them, doubled up. Once I started to expand my horizon and found out that there were other types of books, better written books, I was hooked. I never looked back. So, it does happen. I know I'm not the only one.
Troy: Yukio isn't all the way wrong either. I have to wonder about the educational background of this new found audience that so many publishers and authors are going after. I don't believe many are capable of advancing on to better quality writing. And let's not get it twisted with quality writing and literature. When I say quality, I am not referring to literature per se. I'm talking about good solid writing. I've always said that just because a book is you go girl book doesn't mean that it has to be a poorly written U go girl book. Carl Weber's books are wonderfully written books. None of the subject matters are too heavy, it takes a day or two to read one, and I wouldn't say that he is another Shakespeare. But his books are solid. And thats a far cry from many of the books that are being touted in front of us.
Folks are making such a big deal about these hip hop novels. I'm sorry, but Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim did it far better. All I'm saying is that within any genre there are the excellent and the piss poor. But this new audience can't tell the difference. If the tools isn't there so that they can even appreciate it, there can be no evolution. I agree with Yukio, I don't see authors learning their craft if they are getting over with the poor writing. |
Cynique
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 82
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 06, 2004 - 02:56 am: |
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Does a person have to abandon one calibre of book for another? Some people simply broaden their reading taste to include whatever will provide them with a change of pace.
And, as I mentioned once before, the author of "Bad Girlz", the latest hip-hop best-seller insisted that his publisher not edit or proof read his book because he wanted it to retain its street vibe. This seems to be a growing trend. |
Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 33
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 06, 2004 - 11:14 am: |
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Hello All,
Cynique: I don't believe a person should have to abandon one calibre of book for another. To that is like stunting one's growth. People should expand out, and check into other things, just to try it out. Now, as for what you mentioned about the author of Bad Girlz (now keep in mind I haven't read the book), not editing and not proof reading his work is NOT keeping up any kind of vibe, except the vibe is the "I'm stupid, I like being stupid, and I wish to remain stupid" vibe. That's lazy. |
Cynique
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 85
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 06, 2004 - 01:12 pm: |
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The "publish-my-book-as-it-is" mind-set seems to be corrupting the publishing industry. But it is a sign of the times. It's all about what sells. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 68
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, March 06, 2004 - 05:28 pm: |
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Troy:
I don't equate literary with quality, which is why i used the 'Zane genre,' but i get your point.
thumper: you are correct some will 'broaden their horizons," but i wasn't speaking in absolute terms.
Cynique: I don't think folk should abandon their calibre of book for another...for what?
Also, I don't think these "authors," not necessarily writers, take writing seriously....i don't know what it means to have a "street vibe"...if it means retaining the street vernacular then i think one can edit and proofread their work and still maintain the vernacular....as you say, "Sign of the Times." |
Always_lurking
Newbie Poster
Username: Always_lurking
Post Number: 9
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 04:50 pm: |
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Street Vibe! What the hell is that? You mean to tell me some people actually think that bad grammer, spelling, and punctuation is street vibe. Portraying that type of attitude in characters is one thing, but to internalize it is sooooo wrong. I would have to agree whole heartedly with Yukio that those people are not writers. They are just jumping on the band wagon to make a few buck. |
Solomonjones
Newbie Poster
Username: Solomonjones
Post Number: 2
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 08, 2004 - 11:44 pm: |
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As an author with a journalism degree, eleven years as a professional journalist in the nation's fifth largest media market, and two novels under his belt, I see the new trend in publishing as a mixed blessing.
Because I write about the street--although in a different style than some other authors--I think that readers being open to such stories is a good thing. Self-publishing opens the market for black writers in ways that it has never been opened before. With technology being what it is, writers who may not have been able to afford to self publish are able to do so without mortgaging their futures. And people who learned marketing on the streets are now taking those same skills, and applying them legitimately. That is beneficial to all of us.
On the flipside -- and I mean no disrespect to any particular writer or reader when I say this --I just can't help wondering if repeatedly seeing the same books, poorly edited and haphazardly constructed, doesn't diminish black writers in the eyes of serious readers--black, white, or other. It's not about learning to write in jail or on the street, or having a "street vibe." Chester Himes learned to write in jail and had a "street vibe," but he cared about his craft, and about his readers. His stories are among the best I've ever read.
I see what has happened to Hip Hop, with its negative, misogynistic, destructive messages, and it saddens me. My abiding hope is that black publishing will not undergo the same type of metamorphosis. The people whose shoulders we stand on--people like Zora Neale Hurston, who was castigated for using black vernacular, or James Baldwin, who was shunned for being gay, or Chester Himes, who was urged to make his characters white--suffered greatly to create these opportunities for modern black writers. They never really got paid. I hope we won't repay them by writing crap. But that won't happen to publishing because the readers are smarter than that. Aren't you? |
Cynique
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 95
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 12:43 am: |
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You certainly stated your case eloquently, but as far as the street books are concerned, - the generation gap is apparently alive and well, because these kids today play by a whole new set of rules, some of which they make up as they go along. The hip-hop authors write for the people who read their books and the people who read their books accept the "style" in which the books are written. To a profit-drive publishing industry, if these books sell, then there is a market for them. So, these books just have to be relegated to a certain category, and avoided by those who don't approve of them, most of whom will be literate adults. |
Chrishayden
Newbie Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 25
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 10:33 am: |
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Solomonjones:
I have to agree with Cynique. The increase in literacy has brought a lot of people into the market who read for escape and who do not want to do the work a literary book demands.
But are they much different than white readers, who overwhelmingly pick Clancy, Steele and King over Faulkner, Hemingway and Joyce?
"God must have loved common people because he made so many of them," Abraham Lincoln said. Would you have the black reader of escapist literature have to go to white authors to read--or not read at all? Again, the litworks are subisdized by the trash.
Hurston was also castigated because her novels were out of style--the natural black as noble savage theme was popular in the 20's--the 30's when she was writing were the time of Proletarian revolution--Langston made the change, she didn't.
Baldwin was also castigated because he came out attacking Wright and insisting that black authors did not need to write protest literature (and then he writes "Blues For Mr. Charlie"--go figure. Himes' earliest novels were castigated by everybody--black white left right--because they brutally shot down everyone.
All of these people, by the way were read more by white people before the 60's than black--and all of them would have scoffed at the notion that as writers, they owed anything to anything but their vision.
Is the common person to have nothing to read? Are people who do not enjoy their tastes going to turn up their noses at what they read while not creating anything for them?
And what about when someone turns up his or her nose at your work because it is "not universal" or too black"?
Aren't we just trying to do to the average black reader and the person that writes for them what others try to do to us?
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Solomonjones
Newbie Poster
Username: Solomonjones
Post Number: 3
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 11:08 am: |
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Cynique -
You are absolutely right. Marketing and profits drive the publishing industry. I often compare it to the music industry, in that the royalty system -- which allows publishers to gain the lion share of the profits -- is quite similar. That, I think, is the scariest aspect of the current shift in black publishing. Because, while we can try to avoid books that are not well-written, if those books sell, you will soon find that books of other types (i.e. - well-written and carefully edited) will be fewer and farther between. One has only to look at recent industry patterns.
When Terry McMillan sold 750,000 copies in a year in the early nineties, publishing houses scrambled to find books about four girlfriends, written by black women, in first-person style. When E. Lynn Harris later began to sell stories about gay and bisexual men and their female partners, you saw a shift toward dramatic relationship books. But the current shift precisely mirrors the shift in Hip Hop. That is, once Gangsta Hip Hop began to sell, the thoughtful, eye-opening, and politically savvy musings of groups like Public Enemy and Boogie Down Productions were pushed so far to the rear as to become virtually irrelevant.
I have to wonder if voices outside the new Gangsta genre of black fiction will be similarly pushed to the back of the bus. In the end, Cynique, you're right. It really does come down to dollars and cents. And, while readers can choose to ignore the genre in favor of higher quality offerings, I believe that the higher quality offerings will be fewer in number if the trend continues.
To borrow the rallying cry that helped to elevate Gangsta Hip Hop to a multibillion dollar industry, it's all about the Benjamins. |
Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 37
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, March 09, 2004 - 09:04 pm: |
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Hello All,
Solomon: G u sho rit purde. *smile* Seriously, I have to agree with Cynique, your argument was beautifully written. See, that's why you get paid to write.
The street vibe thing: I can understand an author trying to capture the speech and dialect of his characters. In my opinion more authors should try it, BUT there has to be a method to the madness. Accurately representing folks verncular does not constitue bad English. I get this from Zora's books. Her characters did not speak grammatically correct English, but her novels did adhere to the rules of English, a sentence was still a sentence, a plot was still a plot, and commas and periods were in their proper place.
Although I wrote Solomon that little compliment at the beginning of this post, is that an example of what we are going to see more of. If the write can't write, or spell, and the reader can't read, or spell (keeping that street vibe, gansta lit thang goin) and since there are a million more ways of misspelling a word than there are correctly spelling one, are we witnessing the proverb come to real life in "the blind leading the blind"?
The publishing business is in the business of making money. I still maintain that only time can judge what is real literature and what is not. Please tell me, is Waiting To Exhale still hot? I'm sure it's still selling, but is it on the same par, or even getting the same level of respect as say Their Eyes Were Watching God? I think the higher quality literature will endure. The tragedy may be that many of the authors will not be alive to witness or appreciate it. |
Yukio
Veteran Poster
Username: Yukio
Post Number: 73
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 07:05 am: |
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hmmmmm....here is my point in a nutshell. Indeed, as thumper and others have pointed out, literary literature is timeles and commercial fiction sells well presently. Yet, Waiting To Exhale is quality writing...not necessarily "literary" some may say, but her writing is always(though i haven't read her last two or three books)solid. This is the problem, No? In other words, it is not about "literary" vs. "Commercial," but quality vs. horrific craft! |
Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 41
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 11:26 am: |
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Hello All,
Yukio: EXACTLY! It is about "quality vs. horrific craft!" That's what I'm talking about! I disagree with all of Terry McMillan novels being quality. How Stella Got her Groove rapidly comes to mind as probably one of the worst books I think I have ever read. But, I did like her last book though. |
Solomonjones
Newbie Poster
Username: Solomonjones
Post Number: 6
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 09:53 pm: |
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Thumper -
Thanks for the compliment. You still crazy. But regarding quality v. horrific, I think Yukio hit the nail on the head, and you did, too. The vernacular in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was among the most difficult-to-understand and true-to-life I've ever read. But on the whole, the novel was probably the best I've ever read. The pacing, the description, the emotion, and the plotting were all superb.
I believe that modern writers -- whether commercial or literary -- can capture black vernacular in all its stilted, flawed and rhythmic beauty, and still accompany that vernacular with coherent narratives. That is, if we choose to. Our writers are talented. There is no doubt about that. Our readers are voracious. No one can argue that. But do our public school systems, which are as segregated now as they were before Brown v. Board of Education, afford us the quality education that allows us to truly discern the differences between good and bad literary offerings? I think not.
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Thumper
Regular Poster
Username: Thumper
Post Number: 43
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 07:35 am: |
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Hello All,
Solomon: I'm with you all the way.
I don't believe that our public school system is providing the type of education that it should. In my opinion there is a sharp decline on the quality of education that is being offered today than 20 or 30 years ago. I've used the example before--and it's a true story: The highest educational degree my frined Steve ever obtained was a high school diploma over 30 years ago. He didn't read his first novel until he was 29 years old. Primarily he reads commercial fiction. There are times when he will read literature, but for the most part he sticks with commercial ficition. Steve is the one who started me reading Richard Wright's novels with Native Son (if I'm not mistaken). Now how come when I told a few of my young, college educated, buddies to read the book, they came back with "it's too hard". My niece, who graduated high school with honors and has two years of college under her belt, has YET to get through her first Zora Neale Hurston book. But, she sails through these "hip hop" books though, while Steve can't finish one. My point being is that there is a definite relationship between education and the caliber (not the genre) of books people can accept and read.
I'm well aware that others can come up with examples and situations to counter my point. I believe that parents still have to have a hand in their children education and not believe that since we are in the 21st century and not in the 1950s that the schools automatically offer a better education now than back then. This is not the time to relax. I know many of you are quite active in your children education. I get plenty of mail stating just that. I also know that we have teachers that take their jobs quite seriously, and for that I applaud you. I do. But overall, looking at the whole picture, it ain't pretty. And looking at some of the books that are coming across my desk, it's downright ug-lee.
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Cynique
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 98
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 12:34 pm: |
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Inferior schools are, indeed, the main culprit when it comes to literacy. When kids are graduating from high school with a 6th-grade reading level, then reading becomes a chore. And even a lot of college students have trouble reading with comprehension. But, too, reading is like an epiphany with some children. A light bulb goes on in their head and Eureka! they get it! Other children struggle, never really connecting with the printed word and this inadequacy follows them the rest of their lives. A good reader usually gravitates toward becoming a book reader.
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