Does Reading Matter?
I was reading in the most recent copy of Emory Magazine about how the "bookworm" is a vanishing species.
Apparently there is a recent study which indicates that the willing consumption of fiction, drama, and poetry has declined 10 percent or 20 million readers between 1982 and 2002. One of the important questions asked in the study is what happens when the common themes presented in reading materials and people lose some of the context for engagement in society. How this will impact on the children in school today, students who have a tremendous amount of opportunity to undertake activities other than reading, is a question that bears some exploration.
I wonder whether or not this will have an impact on the way in which comedians think about developing material. Most of us rely on particular common reference points, but if those common points are limited to things that are simply in the broadcast media, then I wonder if that makes developing some kinds of material harder.
Just a thought.
Apparently there is a recent study which indicates that the willing consumption of fiction, drama, and poetry has declined 10 percent or 20 million readers between 1982 and 2002. One of the important questions asked in the study is what happens when the common themes presented in reading materials and people lose some of the context for engagement in society. How this will impact on the children in school today, students who have a tremendous amount of opportunity to undertake activities other than reading, is a question that bears some exploration.
I wonder whether or not this will have an impact on the way in which comedians think about developing material. Most of us rely on particular common reference points, but if those common points are limited to things that are simply in the broadcast media, then I wonder if that makes developing some kinds of material harder.
Just a thought.
posted by Jamie at 1:02 PM
1 Comments:
Voodoo Enronomics
Feudalism: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
Fascism: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.
Communism: You have two cows. You must take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.
Enron Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt-equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred through an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The Enron annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
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