From Nancy Kaplan and Stuart Moulthrop’s interview with each other in the last issue of Kairos, discussing that recent NEA report about how people aren’t reading anymore:
SM:Suggest five ways to save print culture.
NK: Okay, how about these:
- Use a rating system like the ones in use for movies and music. Give all the really good stuff X ratings, or at least NC-17.
- If that doesn’t work, ban the reading of novels, plays, short stories and poems.
- Send all women under the age of 35 to graduate school. (This recommendation is based on the NEA’s finding that having a mother who attended graduate school is one of the strongest predictors that a given person will read a lot of literature.)
- Pipe audio books into elevators instead of Muzak.
- But seriously, folks, support the growth and use of the Web by everyone; create good, accessible, usable digital libraries; invest in technologies, laws and social practices that would support a thriving marketplace for print on demand.
