(no subject)

[rivka]

This afternoon, at the clinic, a little girl belonging to one of the staff members was hanging out in the waiting room, reading. Some other staff member was chatting with her in a friendly sort of way, when suddenly her voice lost its normal relaxed cadence and became stilted, affected, self-conscious:

"Ohhh, you got that book from the library. [reading the title:] Glassblowing. Woooow. Reading is very important, because you'll be all set for school if you've been reading this summer. Good for you."

*eyeroll* Please. This is not how people talk about things that they genuinely value, and you can't tell me that kids aren't sharp enough to pick up the difference.

There's a ridiculous amount of pious propaganda from adults about the Joys of Reading. Probably most of it isn't quite as fake-sounding as this was, but much of it that I encounter seems to be completely alien to the way people who actually like books talk. It reminds me instead of the tone of voice I used as a camp counselor to jolly the kids into taking their swimming lessons when the water temperature was 63 degrees.

My parents never had to preach sermons about the Virtues of Reading. They just sat down in the living room in the evenings and read their books, and kept shelves full of them in every room, and sometimes recommended their favorites. But then, they actually did like to read. curiousangel's parents didn't like to read, but I don't think they preached to him about it either - they just took him to the library a lot and stayed out of his way.

Hmm. As I write this, I'm becoming more sympathetic to the difficulty involved in trying to encourage something you recognize as good, but don't personally appreciate. There has to be a better way than lying about it, but one doesn't immediately suggest itself.

Comments

oh, sorry

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

In response to your actual post, I meant to add that this kind of fake interest played a huge part in me not only wanting to hide the covers of books I read, but in my actually avoiding reading (and drawing) in any situation in which I thought people might notice me doing it. If I hadn't been a damn addict, I might have stopped reading altogether out of sheer mortification.