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Reading Overrated?

I found a cute little NYTimes op-ed piece, which argues that these days, all writing is screenwriting. Embedded in the middle of the article is this paragraph:

At the moment, a tribe of 15,000 novel-readers on the Upper West Side keep fiction alive in America. Other than that, fiction writers are as archaic as fishmongers. If you wish to hide some human truth where no one will find it, place it in the middle of your first novel.

New Yawkers really are a different breed aren't they? Sure, if I was a member of The Tribe of 15000, I might believe that that it was only my efforts that kept the sputtering flame of fiction alive. But I would never express such thoughts to anyone other than my fellow tribesmen. Certainly not in the NY Times, where benighted Californians, Britons, or God help us, South Dakotans might stumble across it.

I'm not sure if this is an example of "the (New York) fish not noticing the water in which he swims," or something more. See, I've always heard people argue that one should read fiction to expand one's horizons and explore different modes of thinking. But our essayist now unwittingly provides us with the counterargument: that perhaps reading can have the opposite effect. Maybe this whole readin' and writin' business isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Posted by Evan Goer on Jan. 26, 2002 at 10:32 AM