Slate chimes in with its own muddled analysis on why people aren’t reading and finds as an unlikely blame-target: Dr. Seuss? It’s an interesting article with the Seuss connection being drawn more for linkability and compelling headlines than actual malice. The argument being that the sort of superego narrative characters like The Cat in the Hat make even making a mess a quick tidy affair, and that our imaginary lives and our “literary” choices aren’t always compelled by such tidiness.
Devoted readers are hoping for a chance to discover, in the narrated lives of other selves, what it’s like to be an individual confronting the unpredictable. Maybe it’s time to stop spreading fears about “reading at risk,” and try generating more excitement about reading at your own risk. How? I wish I could say you could look it up, but you can’t.