Why Read Literature and Fiction?

Today I came across the article 'The Real Reason Men Should Read Fiction' by Jeremy Gordon, available to read here. It sparked some ideas I'd like to explore. 

Recently there's been a panic that young people don't read and even UG's can't get through a long novel. That got me thinking.

Why don't young people read books? 📚

Firstly, they probably think books are old fashioned. That's something their parents did. So not cool! 

Secondly, there's the internet. Quick and easy to interact with and be entertained. It encourages hyper-activity and poor concentration. Whereas, reading is a passive activity and requires thinking and connecting. It's more time consuming. 

It's also a habit that parents are getting their children into by putting a cartoon on for them to keep them quiet on the bus or train. So they grow up attached to the screen not a book. 

There's more choice and variety on the internet between apps, video games, TikTok and gossiping with mates on WhatsApp. That's more exciting than ploughing through Tolstoy's War and Peace. 

Thirdly, audio books are a 'thing'. Adults like them. You can cook, clean and listen to a story while doing so, unless the hoover is on. Equally, at bedtime just put on an audio story for your kids. Not for them to listen to mother reading like I did. But then she's a more expressive reader so audio books didn't attract me. Not that I was given the choice. Audio books weren't a 'thing' in my day. (OK! I'm collecting my Zimmer Frame tomorrow.) It was listen to mother or forget it, read it yourself. 

But then I did have excellent role models for reading. Both my mother and my uncle Josef were avid readers. Difficult to say who read more. They always had a book or two on the go. On any day, you could ask them what they were reading and sure enough they'd be able to tell you and say what it was about. Now it's not that surprising that mum was a big reader. She studied Humanities. But my uncle was decidedly a scientist. It's rare for scientists to read novels. 

Josef was a Michener/Asimov type of reader but, unlike most men, he also happily read books written by women, e.g. Ursula Le Guin. 

Mum was a classical literature/historical novels type of reader. 

I was a 'faction'/non-fiction type of reader. 'Faction' is a blend of fact and fiction. But I never managed to devour books as much as either of them. Although now I read an awful lot as part of my research which extends beyond the philosophy books I write on Cavendish, Shepherd and Spinoza.

However, what interested me was comparing the way my mother and her brother were taught Shakespeare at school. They both attended academic, single-sex schools. But whereas my uncle was given the historical plays of Shakespeare to read and study, my mother was given the ones with a romantic plot or relationships. While she studied 12th Night and King Lear, her brother studied Richard III and Henry V.

So, although both had to study Shakespeare they didn't end up with the same product. 

Did this inbuilt sexism extend to all the literary books they were given to study? Most likely! 

If you have a sibling who goes to a single sex school ask him what his school gives him to read! 

Ask your parents what they remember being given to read at their respective secondary schools. Do you see an inbuilt bias?

When, over the centuries, women demanded that they should be given an education, spanning from primary school to graduate level, nowhere did they say the curriculum they were demanding should have a sexist bias to it.

And, as we all know, this sexist bias extends to school sports: boys play football, girls play netball. 

Does this sexist bias extend to all school subjects?

What about science? In a single sex school girls will do the experiments but what about co-ed schools? Do the boys take over the leadership role in conducting the experiment while the girls look on? 

So yes they're both doing science but in a very different way.

What do you think?

In schools and at home, should girls and boys be given the same reading material to extend their appreciation of a genre they wouldn't normally touch, never mind read? And to understand how the opposite sex thinks.

Surely, that's the point of education which is not just school-based. Parents do have a role even if it's just showing interest in what their children and teenagers are reading and interacting with them about it.

Pushing the boundaries, extending horizons not pandering to a bias is what education is about, isn't it!

Men reading....what do they get out of it..... doesn't have to promote empathy.....for escapism or not