LETTER: Popular fiction worthwhile
To the editor:
In his column last Wednesday, Jon Adams seemed disappointed that few people have written in about his writings over the last semester. Well, since he asked so nicely, who am I to go without making a comment or two?
To start, I’d like to make one thing clear so I won’t be misunderstood by Mr. Adams (once again) or anyone else. I generally agreed with the column of last Wednesday. The ignorance of some Americans is truly terrible. I was also shocked to find out that 1 in 4 Americans read no books in 2006.
That being said, I must disagree with Mr. Adams feelings about the books that were read. Just what is so bad about popular fiction? Hamlet, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Martian Chronicles, I, Robot, Ender’s Game, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Lord of the Rings, The Catcher in the Rye; these are all works of fiction. Most to all of these were also quite popular in their day. They remain popular to this day. To dismiss these and other examples of popular fiction is itself ignorance or elitism. I’d have more respect for a regular reader of popular fiction than someone that picks up one nonfiction book a year. Yes, there are many frivolous and empty works of popular fiction, but there is much dross among all forms of media. That applies to both fiction and nonfiction.
Adam Vanderwerf