American Culture is so weird, you know? Our children believe that a fat guy slides down their chimney once a year to give them presents. If that's not weird, I don't know what is. What's with the Easter bunny, you know? What about the tooth fairy. I mean, what strange and odd things Americans value. A fat dude, a giant bunny, a someone who steals your teeth in the middle of the night. Kind of says something about our country. We're a country of people who eat out all the time. We watch television, we spend time on the internet.
When was the last time you picked up a book? Kids these days don't care about literature. What will happen to greats like Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, and Alexander Dumas? How many people reading this entry even recognize those names? What will happen to classics like "Pride and Prejudice" and "A Tale of Two Cities"? Who will read "The Man in the Iron Mask" or "The Count of Monte Christo"? I very much doubt that any of today's youth have read those books, it's unlikely that they've even seen the movie. Authors like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and George Owell are forgotten in the new world of science fiction and fantasy begun by Rowling and Paolini. What will happen to Chaucer, Homer, and Shakespeare? Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, O'Henry, and Agatha Christie are lost among a myriad of contemporary mystery authors. John Steinbeck is known only as a cursed name by high school students "forced" to read his masterpieces.
Art is disappearing into a black hole. Who painted the Sistine Chapel? Who carved the David? Who painted Madonna on the Rocks and the Last Supper? What about the Mona Lisa? Do you have any idea who built the Guggenheim? Do you even know what that is? Quick, tell me who painted Starry Night! You don't know, do you?
Art and Literature cannot be appreciated by a generation who has no interest, no knowledge, and no hunger for such things.
Am I the only one?
2 comments:
Katy, I agree with you!!
So many people these days have no appreciation for books!!
It makes me sad!
They are missing out on soo much!!
Try not to be so cynical so early in life; you'll have plenty of time for that later. And condescension as a means of relating to the world may seem like the easy way now but will actually be the more difficult path in the long term. There are a lot of shining stars out there; they're just not as apparent as we may wish them to be. With that said, there is truth in what you say and thanks for sharing your thoughts with the world.
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