I’ve noticed some interesting status stuff around reading. “Reading” is used as a shorthand for “reading (mostly long form) fairly high status material”. The large amount of reading which is normal for gamers doesn’t count as reading, and neither does the huge amount of reading and writing that’s involved in fanfiction.
Did you know that novels used to be low status?
And, of course, valorizing reading leaves out that there are many mediocre and worse books, and a huge amount of high quality movies, television, and graphic novels. Some graphic novels have a lot of text, too.
Heading further out into connotation-land, it’s possible that having nothing but the words (voice?) in your head is considered more intellectual and higher status.
I don’t know that I see it that way. Some of it is just plain old discipline and focused effort, which I don’t have. I do much better reading articles, short essays, blog posts, etc. than I do reading books. Therefore, I covet the ability of people who can sit down and absorb a textbook or classic novel. I’d imagine they can often channel that ability toward other useful tasks, too.
Also, more than high-volume readers, I covet the abilities of prolific, interesting writers. And, it is my hypothesis that most good writers do a good bit of reading—more than the average person, I’d say.
I’ve noticed some interesting status stuff around reading. “Reading” is used as a shorthand for “reading (mostly long form) fairly high status material”. The large amount of reading which is normal for gamers doesn’t count as reading, and neither does the huge amount of reading and writing that’s involved in fanfiction.
Did you know that novels used to be low status?
And, of course, valorizing reading leaves out that there are many mediocre and worse books, and a huge amount of high quality movies, television, and graphic novels. Some graphic novels have a lot of text, too.
Heading further out into connotation-land, it’s possible that having nothing but the words (voice?) in your head is considered more intellectual and higher status.
I don’t know that I see it that way. Some of it is just plain old discipline and focused effort, which I don’t have. I do much better reading articles, short essays, blog posts, etc. than I do reading books. Therefore, I covet the ability of people who can sit down and absorb a textbook or classic novel. I’d imagine they can often channel that ability toward other useful tasks, too.
Also, more than high-volume readers, I covet the abilities of prolific, interesting writers. And, it is my hypothesis that most good writers do a good bit of reading—more than the average person, I’d say.
Most good (performers of a task) do a lot more (studying of that task) than the average person, yes.