“[T]he liberal arts in general, and especially
reading seriously, offer an opening to a wider life, the powers of active
citizenship (including the willingness to vote); reading strengthens
perception, judgment, and character; it creates understanding of other people
and oneself, maybe kindliness and wit, and certainly the ability to endure
solitude, both in the common sense of empty-room loneliness and the cosmic
sense of empty-universe loneliness. Reading fiction carries you further into
imagination and invention than you would be capable of on your own, takes you
into other people's lives, and often, by reflection, deeper into your own. I
will indulge a resounding tautology: every great civilization, including ours,
has had a great literature and great readers. If literature matters less to
young people than it once did, we are all in trouble.”— David Denby, Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives
(2016)
(Photo of David Denby, from February 2016, taken by Michael
Bednarek.)
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