In 1931, a schoolboy wrote a fan letter to his favorite author, Edgar Rice Burroughs. It said, in part:
The author of the Tarzan novels wrote back, in part:
Which explains why I bought the Twilight books for my youngest daughter. The 14-year-old boy who wrote the letter was Forrest J. Ackerman, {wiki} who grew up to coin the term "sci-fi". Ackerman was a film producer, actor, and the editor of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, and made a name as the biggest science fiction fan ever. Read both letters in full at Letters of Note. Link
I am a fourteen year old boy and am a low Junior in High School. Today at school our teacher was discussing "good literature." I asked if Edgar Rice Burroughs was all right for a book report. I knew she'd say "no" (teachers always do) but I didn't expect her to lecture to the class for the whole period about how terrible your books were!
The author of the Tarzan novels wrote back, in part:
My stories will do you no harm. If they have helped to inculcate in you a love of books, they have done you much good. No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.
Which explains why I bought the Twilight books for my youngest daughter. The 14-year-old boy who wrote the letter was Forrest J. Ackerman, {wiki} who grew up to coin the term "sci-fi". Ackerman was a film producer, actor, and the editor of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, and made a name as the biggest science fiction fan ever. Read both letters in full at Letters of Note. Link
You didn't... did you?!?
*raises eyebrow*
Once I convinced my oldest to read A Wrinkle in Time, she became an avid reader. My youngest had read all the Twilight books and is now reading To Kill A Mockingbird.
Still, by the 6th or 7th Tarzan book, I started noticing more and more boilerplate paragraphs...
They do hold a special place in my heart, and I still can't watch most Tarzan adaptations (with maybe the exception of the '80s film version) because I get huffy over the 'ignorance' of having him perpetually pre-verbal.
How come whenever I hit refresh, someone's web address appears?
Yet when I talk to the average parent and ask if their kid is a reader, the majority shrug and say "not really" - and the disturbing fact is it doesn't really seem to bother them.
The western world is heading down the path detailed in the comedy "Idiocracy". It'd be funny if it wasn't real life.
I do agree that it's a great way to get a literary foot in the door, once you get someone hooked on using their imagination there's no going back.