Background Noise: Shh, Frou Frou
Last website visited: The Bubble Lounge
Mood: what time is it? where am i? oh...
Right now i want... to leave you with a parting thought...

There hasn't been a book published worth reading since i was 3.

Or so a report compiled by the Board of Directors of the Modern Library would suggest; they recently assembled a list of the 100 best books of the 20th century, and chronologically, they stop in 1983.

It's a good list... Sister Carrie, Kim, Heart of Darkness, Wings of the Dove, Call of the Wild, The Age of Innocence, Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury, Brave New World, Grapes of Wrath, 1984, From Here to Eternity, Catch-22, Midnight's Children, Ragtime.... i've read them all and they're wonderful (i haven't read the entire list, but at least those listed here), i haven't liked them all, but tastes and literary worth are two completely different animals.

Even more disturbing, perhaps, than the fact that nothing of literary merit has been published since the early 80s, is the degradation in the quality of the top 10 fiction best sellers for each year in the 20th century... and the fact that books on the former list are rarely found on the later.

Is this an indication of a decreased general intelligence of the population? of the death of literature? diminution of "hard" reading with the rise of pulp novels (chick lit, sci fi, fantasy, lawyer stories)?

i certainly don't know; but the trends are frightening....

in other completely unrelated news... Way to go Canadian Schools!: the Canadian education department is starting a program to improve the self-esteem and self-worth of children, specifically teaching a positive body image in an attempt to decrease teenage depression and dangerous eating patterns in the future (school psychologists noticed children in kindergarten and grade 1 not eating their lunches so they wouldn't become fat).

come to think of it, these stories aren't that out of step; i was lucky enough to have teachers who made me read great literature and parents and friends who told me i was beautiful just the way i was so i would grow up with a solid head on my shoulders and a good idea of where i was going... i'm afraid too many children today aren't learning these important lessons.