Word: gioia
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...Columnist Theodore J. Gioia can be reached at tgioia@fas.harvard.edu...
...Columnist Theodore J. Gioia can be reached at tgioia@fas.harvard.edu...
...literacy, critics attacked the agency for publicizing "alarming national survey results." Evidently the NEA views its latest report as a validation of its efforts. "Our belief, then and now, was that the first step towards solving a problem was to identify and understand it," the agency's chairman, Dana Gioia, says in the report's preface. One of the most significant areas of progress involves the reading habits of young adults (ages 18-24), who went from a 20% decline in literary reading in 2002 to a 21% percent increase in 2008. "We note their progress with particular satisfaction," Gioia...
...latest survey, the NEA's chairman asks the obvious follow-up: "What happened in the past six years to revitalize American literary reading?" His answer is disappointing: "There is no statistical answer to this question." Not one to let the absence of facts spoil a good story, Gioia then goes on to propose that perhaps the sheer volume of electronic entertainment and communication we're exposed to has created a backlash of sorts, prompting a reading renaissance. But as L.A. Times reporter Carolyn Kellogg points out, is it really accurate to consider laptops as "anti-literature?" Might the Internet...
...Cultural decline is not inevitable," Gioia concludes. "While we cannot be complacent, we can surely pause to celebrate our common success." Unfortunately, that self-congratulatory tone spoils the entire report and overshadows its larger point - that more Americans reading is a good thing, regardless of whether the NEA made them...