When did reading become a thing to hate?

[Sib]

I was playing xbox live on CoD4 yesterday when I encountered one of the less than lovely people who seem to be the main inhabitants of it.
(This section is me bragging ok so if you want to skip thats fine...) Anyway I was on a pretty good win streak in free for all, got about 10 matches in a row going 25 to 6 or 7 every time, like 5 headshots every match, hehe it was epic sometimes.
Back to the point, this guy I met was doing pretty badly, then during one pretty awesome kill where I jumped out of a window landed in front of him and nailed him to hell with my AK47, I hear over the mic "Great job killing a guy with broken fingers!". I think to myself that he could hardly have avoided being killed there even with mechanical super fingers.
So I ask him, "why are you playing with broken fingers? Surely that won't help them heal?". He replies "I'm bored nothing else to do", I ask him "why not read a book?". With a tone of incredulity "read a book?? books are for losers". To save me typing we get into a bit of a debate where every time I list something good about books he shouts "fuck you fag" or "you're a gayboy".
After I won the match I had to sit there for a second and marvel at his attitude to literature. He even asked me to ask everyone else in the lobby if they read, nobody answered, although after he left one guy did say thank god they stopped arguing...

Anyway my fine Escapistians(?) when do you think reading books became a shunnable offence?

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

"Sounds like we got a reader here!" - Bill Hicks.

And in conjunction
"What am I reading for? Well, I read for many reasons, but the main one is that I don't end up a ****ing waffle waitress like you."

 

[General Ma Chao]

It's been a social offense for a long time. In this country there is a very small list of socially acceptable activities.

1) Sports
2) Drinking and/or drugs
3) Sex, or at least the pursuit of it

Anything else is the purview of the various sub species of social reject. At least that's how it is here in the US. It develops in high school thanks to cliques and only continues into adulthood. It's really no wonder so many people in the world think us Americans are utter morons.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Blighty does have a lot of very good bookshops though, (says he who works in one) and I think Harry Potter/The Da Vinci Code (despite me loathing them) have done for reading what Windows did for compatability.

I.E. Not all good but at least we're on the same page now.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

"Sounds like we got a reader here!" - Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks is awesome and it was Saint Bill Hicks day a couple weeks ago, april 13

but the thing with reading, i got no clue why, i think it's a subversion technique possibly, make ppl stupid by not reading and therefore easier to control the popoulace

smart populace is harder to control than a stupid one, cause heaven forbid someone forms an opinion on something and has an idea that the government or their religion is wrong and decide to rebel against it.

but i think it's because reading a book isn't percieved as a social thing and therefore bad thing to do.

i personally haven't read as much as i'd like to for various reasons but i'm trying to read more again.


also people don't understand words as much as they used to, i find way too many ppl use the truthiness of the word rather than what it actually means or they confuse words. the best is with computer documentation, when i'm not on the clock i'm rather curt with ppl asking for help and tell them to rtfm, if they say they don't understand it i go thru it word by word with them, they get the point after about 2 words and stop asking me stupid crap that is written in plain english

and yes i will go "it says 'press the power button', so what does the word press mean? and what is 'the power button'?" it's rather fun to have them look at you and say "i'm not stupid" and then i retort with "well why can't you follow the instructions then?" they tend to get the point after that

 

[Necrohydra]

It's been a social offense for a long time. In this country there is a very small list of socially acceptable activities.

1) Sports
2) Drinking and/or drugs
3) Sex, or at least the pursuit of it

Anything else is the purview of the various sub species of social reject. At least that's how it is here in the US. It develops in high school thanks to cliques and only continues into adulthood. It's really no wonder so many people in the world think us Americans are utter morons.

Quoted for truth. You forgot hunting, although it only applies to the more rural areas of the country. Mine as well make the first day of deer season a holiday in some parts.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

I'm about to start 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. Never read any of his stuff, luddite that I am, so I'm looking forward to this.

I'd love to hear your impression of it. I'm a big Wilde fan, but my love of him has as much to do with his flaws as his wit, both in life and literature.

I've heard some criticism that boiled down to being forced to read good books in bad conditions (i.e. English class) leads people to associate the two and ruin whatever love of reading they had. Also, people who were read to as children tend to like reading more, so the growing estrangement between parents and children certainly doesn't help.

I used to compete in poetry slams and it was interesting how much that could do to get people, especially young people, excited about poetry, excited enough to read it, even. I wonder if there would be some way to create that excitement for longer-form work.

 

[star_topology]

With a tone of incredulity "read a book?? books are for losers". To save me typing we get into a bit of a debate where every time I list something good about books he shouts "fuck you fag" or "you're a gayboy".

Ow! My Balls!

"Idiocracy" is becoming more and more prophetic.

 

[Joe]

You do realize by making fun of those hobbies, you're just as bad as people making fun of yours, right?

 

[Strafe Mcgee]

Blighty does have a lot of very good bookshops though, (says he who works in one) and I think Harry Potter/The Da Vinci Code (despite me loathing them) have done for reading what Windows did for compatability.

I.E. Not all good but at least we're on the same page now.

They may be bad, but they're miles away from that coked-up moron Russel Brand's 'Booky Wook'.

 

[josh797]

I'm about to start 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde. Never read any of his stuff, luddite that I am, so I'm looking forward to this.

wow, thats an epic book. chilling, but very good

 

[cleverlymadeup]

I've heard some criticism that boiled down to being forced to read good books in bad conditions (i.e. English class) leads people to associate the two and ruin whatever love of reading they had. Also, people who were read to as children tend to like reading more, so the growing estrangement between parents and children certainly doesn't help.

my objection to english class is that they tear apart a book for some of the most trivial thing that may or may not be true. like "what is the symbolism in this chapter?"

the part in back to school where they get kurt vonnegut to write a paper on his own work and they say how wrong he is about it was just brilliant. funnily kurt probly laughed at it, he had that sort of sense of humour.

I used to compete in poetry slams and it was interesting how much that could do to get people, especially young people, excited about poetry, excited enough to read it, even. I wonder if there would be some way to create that excitement for longer-form work.

actually i point out that as much as some kids say they think poetry and gay that they like rap and all rap is just a poem, for some reason they don't like it. but a rap song is just a long poem of rhyming couplets. some actually have a moment of enlightenment and realize maybe poetry isn't that bad

 

[cleverlymadeup]

True that. I couldn't read a book for two or three months after my English Literature A-Level, for fear that I'd start seeing bullshit in the book that wasn't there. And I swear, some of the literary 'techniques' we had to comment on were bloody laughable.

Exclamatio: The use of exclamation

'nuff said

i still remember a friend falling asleep in english class and the teacher asking him what this one part in shakespeare signified and he responded with "uhhh foreshadowing" and the teacher was like "wow i never thought of that but yeah i guess it could be"

as my friend father, an english teacher, said "you only need to know 2 things for english class and that is bull and shit"

never have truer words been spoken about that class

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

my objection to english class is that they tear apart a book for some of the most trivial thing that may or may not be true. like "what is the symbolism in this chapter?"

Totally agree. Shakespear was ruined for me by having to overanalyse all his work.

On a related note, given we have some readers here:

What five books would you have on the UK/US curriculum as 'Must Reads'?
(Don't want to divert the topic that much, but it doesn't really deserve a topic of it's own)

For me...
Watchmen - Alan Moore.
Maus - Art Spiegelman
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Watership Down - Richard Adams
& NightWatch - Terry Pratchett.

 

[Easykill]

Frankly, I don't like poetry. Poetry is in my opinion the perfect form of writing for those who like to sound intelligent and wise but can't pull it off, it lets you obfuscate your meaning so much that no one could possibly understand more than it's basic idea. Your experiences automatically fill the blanks, giving it a meaning you can't help at least respecting, because YOU CAME UP WITH IT. I see no advantages of poetry over prose.

For the other thing, reading is awesome, but anything in excess is bad. There is still a very high ceiling for reading though.