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A Blog's Life: Pocket Full of Kryptonite
September 6, 2007
This is a very, very, very long article (remember those? We used to love them... ) and it's worth every scroll of your cursor. It's Steve Wasserman's "Good-bye to All That: The decline of the coverage of books isn't new, benign, or necessary," and it's the cover story of the Sep/Oct Columbia Journalism Review.
My friend and colleague John Freeman, president of the NBCC, blogged about Steve's piece on Tuesday and reminded everyone about the upcoming NBCC symposium, "The Age of Infinite Margins: Book Critics Face the 21st Century."
As I began reading Wasserman's thoughtful, interesting, and well-paced article, I wanted to pull out several bon mots and apercus here. I began to write, and realized I was composing -- a thoughtful, interested, and very, very, very long response. And that is not my business, here. My business is to blog (if I were meant to write long responses, there would be a "jump" application on this software).
In the spirit of blogging, I'd like to tell you about Wasserman's last paragraphy (which you should read for yourself, after having read the entire article, because telling you about it does not sum anything up at all). He ends with an anecdote:
"I shall never forget overhearing some years ago, on the morning of the first day of the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, a woman asking a UCLA police officer if he expected trouble. He looked at her with surprise and said, 'Ma’am, books are like Kryptonite to gangs.' There was more wisdom in that cop’s remark than in a thousand academic monographs on reforming the criminal justice system. What he knew, of course, is what all societies since time immemorial have known: If you want to reduce crime, teach your children to read. Civilization is built on a foundation of books."
Hmmmmm, well, "all societies since time immemorial" haven't been reading -- but Wasserman's point is true: all societies since time immemorial have known that teaching children the value of measured thought, considered discourse, and treasured stories cannot be underestimated. Even blogs can contribute...
Posted by Bethanne Patrick on September 6, 2007 | Comments (3)
