Best student mistake I've seen this week: "Curley's wife was an expired actress". I suppose, in a way, she was.
Most of my students constantly tell me they hate to read. They'll read everything on My Space, they'll read newspapers, and they'll read magazines about cars. If I put a story in front of them that relates directly to their lives, they'll read it with gusto. So really, they don't hate to read. They just hate to read when they think it's an assignment. That's why you have to get them to think it's their idea, but that's not so easy when they're staring at the pages of Gatsby.
It's interesting to me how that carries over into the film industry. Everybody has to read to improve. Actors have to read scripts, directors, executives, especially writers. But I know tons of people who just don't. My fantastic trainer, bless him, doesn't read books but he wants to act. My next door neighbor is the same. I know screenwriters who don't read scripts for whatever weird reason they've convinced themselves it would be bad. I think it's just lazy.
In one of my writing workshops in college there was a man named Elton who wrote terrible stories and refused to take any criticism. The first day of class the professor asked us to write down the name of our favorite writer. At the time my favorite was Dickens. Elton wrote down his own name. Can you imagine the ego on that guy? It might have been taken for confidence if he wasn't so terrible. But his attitude was so bad the professor eventually refused to share his scripts with the class.
I can't imagine what people do to keep from being bored if they don't read. How do you get any smarter?
I'm reading Wicked at the moment. Very clever. Someone should make it a musical.
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I know a lot of screenwriters who will read books about screenplay structure and how to get ahead in Hollywood, but won't dare to crack an actual screenplay or play or book.
ReplyDeleteI have been one of them actually.
But sometimes that reluctance to read betrays the person's real intent. That guy in your writing class wanted to be a rock star or a dictator of a small country or wanted his parents to love him. But he probably, deep down had no real desire to be a writer.
Good blog, by the way.
My son had a book fair last month. I gave him $20 and said "call my cell phone if you need more money". We have a book closet and reading is not optional in my house. He came home that afternoon with a Caldecott and a Newberry. Good boy. His friend came in behind him with a video game that he paid $35 for. So, okay -- we have a BOOK FAIR to encourage kids to read but sell at the book fair, the very thing taking kids away from books. Clever.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome that you encourage reading, Maryan. Not enough parents do these days. That other kid won't get as high a score on the SAT one day when it's time for vocabulary and comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that the kids who like to read are usually the nicest kids, too. They have more respect for the teachers. I'm not sure if that's because they're wiser from reading, or if the same parents that make them read teach them manners.
I am a little late but I still want to comment on this. Part of wanting to read is conditioning. If you are used to read books you will automatically start a new one after you finished the previous. When I was "younger" I used to read a lot of books. I realized when I didn't read a book for a while (because of school or job or whatever) I got used to NOT reading a book. But I still bought a lot of books everytime.
ReplyDeleteP.S. It's just like training. The more you do the easier it gets.
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