Sherry Chandler » The Myths of Reading Aloud
The Myths of Reading Aloud
Speaking of Fearless Reader, as Poppysmatus just was, some time back, Charlie Hughes drew my attention to this article from The Dragon Lode, The Myths of Reading Aloud (PDF), by Patrick Shannon of Penn State. It’s a fascinating article that takes as its theme the meta-message celebrities send when they choose books to read aloud to children in public fora.
When, for example, Bill Clinton chose “The Little Engine that Could” for two third grade students to read on the steps of the Wyandotte, Michigan, public library, he had a political purpose — to publicize his American Reads program, but he also had a message to send about, oh say, welfare reform. When Laura Bush reads Officer Buckle and Gloria in schools and libraries, she is sending a meta-message about terrorism.
And what of George W. Bush and his favorite childhood book, the one he reads when he isn’t reading The Pet Goat?
President Bush offers a different lesson when he reads The Very Hungry Caterpillar to school children and the press – one of acquisition or perhaps consumption is a better label. His reading suggests that uninterrupted accumulation of things without regard for others will be rewarded with great, even profound, personal gain. Gone are the illusions of Clinton’s little engine entrepreneur who meets the needs of community in order to get rich by doing good. Here we have an individual getting fat by taking what he needs from the environment. Each day the caterpillar acquires more, eating a hole in more and more fruit and leaving the rest to ruin. Over-indulgence requires only a tonic, and then, the overwhelming quantity of accumulations results in a qualitative change of being. That is, the accumulator becomes one of the beautiful, free to fly wherever without apparent need or care. Moreover this metamorphosis is completely natural as the accumulator is entitled to all that he takes and gets. Sounds like anyone you know?
A little Freudian, you say. Maybe so. But fun.
And no disrespect meant to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is a wonderful little book that my boys loved.
The whole article is a good read. I suggest you try it.
And for a good fiction, try George W. Bush’s reading list as reported by U.S. News & World Report:
- Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky
- American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (a biography of Robert Oppenheimer, an inventor of the atomic bomb)
- Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero by David Maraniss (about the late all-star Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder)
- Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power by Richard Carwardine
- Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural by Ronald C. White Jr.
- Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
- Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
- Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky (discussing how polio affected the United States in the mid-20th century)
- The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth by Leigh Montville
- The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry
- Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
- The Stranger by Albert Camus
And, of course, three Shakespeares.
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1 Comment
1. Sherry Chandler » R&hellip replies at 9th November 2006, 2:49 pm :
[...] As a follow-up on my post about The Myths of Reading Aloud, I draw your attention to one explanation Dubya gave for why the Republicans lost so badly on Tuesday (as reported by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post): President Bush had many explanations for what he called the “thumping” his party took on Tuesday, but the most creative was the notion that his chief strategist, Karl Rove, had spent too much time reading books. [...]
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