March 31, 2011

Young Minds on the Deterioration of the Written Word

I haven't been blogging much lately because I've been grading papers. Student papers. Well, actually, student blogs. They were asked to write a blog on a significant topic in writing and I was shocked by what turned out to be the #1 most popular blog topic: how social media and text messaging are 'destroying' the English language.

There were a lot of impassioned speeches about how 'the youth today' (umm, you're seventeen... you are the youth today... but alright) don't respect the glory of English at all. I even had a student tell me that, if we weren't careful, eventually we'd end up talking to each other in nothing but a series of grunts. A lot of them seem to feel that technology in general - including ebooks - are raping and pillaging worthwhile literature and eviscerating our appreciation and understanding of the written word.

I find myself... confused by this. I'll agree that 'text speak' is finding its way into our everyday language - after all, 'LOL' and 'OMG' have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary - and I'll agree that it can be annoying. But students are still learning 'real' English in school. They're writing 'real' English in classes and speaking it to other people. It is annoying that people don't check the grammatical correctness of their Facebook status updates... but in the end it's just their Facebook status update. I don't think a misplaced apostrophe or a ZOMG mean that English is tumbling downhill.

I find it fascinating (in the way you find a car crash on the side of the highway fascinating) that so many of my students feel we're experiencing not only a decline in English usage, but also in the quality of published books. A lot of them like to site Twilight's popularity as a prime example of how the mighty literary canon has fallen. They like to say things like 'books with the beauty of Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice just don't get published anymore'. But the thing is... beautifully written books are being written and published all the time. I just re-read Cold Mountain - it wasn't written all that many years ago - and I challenge anyone to read that book and tell me that masterpieces aren't still being written. Twilight may not be the best written series of all time, but guess what? That doesn't make it trash. It brought millions of non-readers to the written word. That's more people getting interested in language, trying their hand at writing themselves. More people falling in love with storytelling. Because that's part of what makes 'quality' literature, isn't it? The author's ability to tell us a story that sets us on fire, regardless of whether their work is considered 'literary' fiction.

And while we're talking about how technology is ruining us... I find myself blown away by the attitude towards ebooks. Because - well - ebooks are still BOOKS. They are exactly the same as the hardback original, just packaged for a different format. I think that, if anything, ebooks are getting more people to read. Sure, reading on a screen is always going to be a different experience than reading 'in the flesh'. But they can be bought and consumed instantly, and that is appealing to just about everyone. It worries me that we are so stuck in this romantic ideal about reading and writing that we aren't able to be open to the exciting possibilities that technology presents for literature.

In sum, I'm as keen and romantic about hardback books and beautiful prose as anyone. And I think that it is important that kids be taught the basic rules of our language so that, when they play and experiment with it, they are adding something to the evolution of our language (or, at the very least, know that emoticons will never be as powerful as using real words to evoke real emotions). But I'd hate to see us put our hands over our ears and pretend that technology and genre fiction = the end of the good book as we know it.

Rant concluded; back to grading.

March 29, 2011


So I did that thing I never thought I'd do. I bought a Kindle.

Well, actually, some other lovely person bought it for me, but the point is that it's mine. Even though I'm a prime candidate for the e-reader trend - I travel and I read like a dehydrated camel drinks water - but I was always a little skeptical about the e-book thing. It's not that I didn't think they were a great idea. Lightweight, portable, tree-friendly - what's not to like? But I already spend a large chunk of my day staring at a screen. I couldn't bear the thought of reading for pleasure from one. Reading is my escape from being 'plugged in'. Plus there's that whole obsession with printing and cover art and bookstores - it just didn't seem like e-books and I were meant to be.

And then I went on my umpteenth very long plane journey across the planet with three big books in my handbag. And I realized that a certain portion of the books I read are ones I don't feel the need to keep on my shelf. There are books I rip through in less than a day that end up taking up prime real estate in my already cluttered bookshelves. Why overload my handbag with half my weight in books when I could keep them all on a Kindle (and buy them for a fraction of the price)? Don't mind if I do.

And I have to say, I'm loving it. It isn't back lit, so it really is like reading from a printed page. I quickly forgot about the things I thought would bug me - the blackout blip between page changes, the slightly grainy quality of the text - and found myself losing sight of the fact that I wasn't reading an actual book.

If I had to complain about anything, I'd say that I miss the cover art, although Kindle has come up with lots of cool screen savers that pop on every time you turn the device off. But e-books tend to be cheaper than hardbacks, and I can't say I'm not a fan of that. Although, considering the fact that you're getting an electronic file instead of the whole printing package, some of the prices should really be cheaper. (But that's a subject for another post.)

That said, I'll never stop buying hardbacks. People talk about e-readers as if you have to choose to read one way or the other, which I've never understood. I'll buy books on my Kindle for travel, for books I know I don't need on my shelf, and for books I plan to rip through. But I'll still buy hardback copies of the books I love. I'll buy them because I love the printing process - the binding, the cover art, the feel of the pages. I'll buy them because the books I cherish are ones I want to leaf through and to keep on my shelves as treasures. Because I don't think there is one decorating feature more telling and lovely than a wall full of cherished books.

So I'm not ashamed to say that I love my Kindle. Because you can be up with the reading times without having to shove hard copy books aside.

March 8, 2011

On The Bright Side

So, Australia isn't all flowers and chirping birds. Lately, it's also cyclones and floods and mosquitos the size of my fist. It's also unemployment and other unfortunate pitfalls (but that's another story). But, on the bright side, it's still got its charms. I've gotten to sample several of them since I got back from my Christmas vacation.

I went on a day trip to Double Island Point, hiking up to the lighthouse for magnificant views like these:

I've spent two fantastic weekends camping on the beach. The first was on Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. After a wind-blown night in which our inexpert tarp-tying left us very cold and very wet, we finally got the hang of the campsite set-up and enjoyed some pretty prolific stars. We even saw a giant sea turtle scuttling along the beach (with English tourists trying to take pictures of themselves high-fiving it... poor turtle). It rained almost the entire time, which did not leave a lot of room for good picture-taking. But the rain quit long enough for me to take these:

The view from in front of our campsite.

Wading down crystal-clear Eli Creek during a very brief break in the clouds.
The Maheno wreck at high tide.

And then there was our weekend on Stradbroke Island just off the coast of Brisbane. The weather was perfect. We took our beers down to the beach and caught two nights' worth of amazing sunsets. We played a little coconut shot-put in the sand, and on our way back to our campsite, we saw a lady kangaroo chewing on some dinner grass.