Sceletium Tortuosum Tec

The incorruptible ...

December 1937. A child waits for thaw frozen (Gettyimages)

"In his famous essay on The experience of reading and CS Lewis insisted that good books, which provide an extension of our consciousness, differ from the others in that "offer a good reading" and need readers and critics like. "The value of literature is checked when you good readers." Being a good reader need not be pedantic, learned, scholar, or anything . Reading well requires attention acuity and time. And that is what polite habit now, with the proliferation of publications and easy entertainment, it seems very threatened. This is the central issue of the last chapter of Manguel: the marketing literature, which is trivial and banal to the consumption of a mass society and the media. "The bookstore chains sell the space on your windows and tables to the highest bidder, so that what the audience sees is what the publisher pays for display. As a result, piles of books advertised as dealing best sellers most of the physical space of the library and all of them, such as sausages, have an expiration date implied which guarantees a constant production. "Novels surface flooding the market, are widely well-paid advertising, and easy as pie and intrigue language satisfy the craving exciting offer readers an audience thick, broad, quick and unanimous. The advertising is misleading; criticism often neglected. It is not easy, in my opinion, defining what is good literature , we have to resort to the trial of the rare good readers. There are still, even among subway passengers. Like good stories, friendly voices warning, we go against the fashions are still there, uncorrupted. "


fragment article by Carlos García Gual, Utility fiction. The true reading is still an intellectual challenge, an art and a sentimental education in The Country , Saturday October 30, 2010.