People Who Can Still Read Deeply Will Rule The World…Well, Maybe
You will forgive me while I beat another dead horse, won’t you? Thanks! Best readers, ever! A recent essay in The Atlantic tells us what many have already figured out; reading is dead, and it’s not coming back. I weep for having to have typed that sentence…again. In this sad and disturbing essay, “ The Age of Reading Is Over ,” we learn that not only are fewer people reading long-form prose for pleasure, but soon will permanently lose the ability to do so. To be perfectly honest, I never once thought about it that way. The scroll, the digital cave, has trapped young brains and is atrophying their attention spans early so they will not be able to get through a serious novel later on. Reading has come to seem extraneous even to some of the best-educated members of society. Margaret Rennix, Harvard’s assistant director for humanities and social-sciences support (and you know how much I hate relying on Harvard), said in a recent i...