Americans Love Pulp Fiction

In the ongoing debate over who reads what, if anything, a new study from the National Endowment for the Arts has shown that a majority of Americans do read fiction. The report, with the catchy, government-approved title of “Who Reads Literature?: Survey Data on the Reading of Fiction, Poetry, Drama by U.S. Adults During the 1980s,” found that 56% of American adults read at least one work of fiction, poetry or drama in the course of a year. But before the nation’s high school teachers rush out and pat themselves on the backs for instilling a love of Dante, Milton, Melville or Dostoevsky, it should be noted that most of the “literature” read by Americans turns out to be genre fiction. Thrillers, romances and science fiction top the list, with just 10% to 25% of the population admitting to reading in one year any work of what is deemed “quality” fiction. Even fewer adults, just 7% to 12%, said they read novels, poems, stories or plays by “serious” writers, modern-day or otherwise.

Working with data from two surveys conducted by the Arts Related Trend Study and another by the Book Industry Study Group, the endowment also concluded that readership among young adults, those under 30, has dropped in the last two decades. Not surprisingly, television, video, movies and computer screens emerged as the villains in this trend, as the report cited indications that America is moving from being a reading nation to a “watching” nation. Americans, the endowment determined, spend four times as much leisure time watching television or listening to the radio as they do reading books, magazines or newspapers.

Countering this slide somewhat, the study showed an increase in recreational reading among the elderly. The endowment predicted that the offsetting habits of older and younger readers may mean that overall levels of recreational reading will not change dramatically in coming years.

The report was written by Nicholas Zill, a social psychologist who is the executive director of a Washington research group called Child Trends, and Marianne Winglee, a statistical analyst in Washington. The two authors urged additional research into how people make their reading selections. Noting that when readers picked up a book simply because it “looked interesting,” but without any information about its contents, they experienced a positive reaction just 40% of the time, Zill and Winglee recommended literature guidance programs that might read something like, “If you liked Book A, you’ll probably enjoy Books B, C or D.”

“Some of the research suggests that a lot of people read things because they are interested in the subject matter,” Zill said in a telephone interview from his office in Washington. “It’s not necessarily the literature for its own sake, but what it’s about.” To capitalize on this finding, Zill said librarians and bookstore owners should offer displays that “mix fiction and nonfiction” as well as providing guidance and information.

“One of the things is to give people more information, guide them to books that will be rewarding to them,” Zill said.

The report also suggested that since genre fiction does enjoy such popularity, supporters of “quality” literature might try to determine which works are likely to appeal to which genre readers. For example, horror fans might pick up Mary Shelley, while aficionados of romance might read the Bronte sisters.

“There’s a way to build on the fact that people like genre fiction,” Zill said. “I think we have to do some creative steering.”

He added that he felt that government agencies, including the NEA, should “play a more active role” in promoting popular writers along with those who may be less well known but more “literary.”

“It’s just getting somewhat off the high throne of literature and art and realizing that you have to communicate with people,” Zill said.

“Given the fact that you’ve got this very dominant anti-intellectual pop culture,” he added, “someone has to be out there promoting the other side.”

“Spy Notes,” a parody of the collegiate standby “Cliff’s Notes,” does not infringe the rights of Cliff’s Notes Inc., according to a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision rendered Sept. 5. The reasoning for that decision was not released until Sept. 23 when a three-judge panel wrote: “We conclude that the parody cover of Spy Notes, although it surely conjures up the original and goes to great lengths to use some of the identical colors and aspects of the cover design of Cliff’s Notes, raises only a slight risk of consumer confusion that is outweighed by the public interest in free expression.”

The parody, whose publication had been blocked by a lower-court decision, includes the “Novel-O-Matic,” a kind of literary slide rule for the automatic creation of the 1980s novel, as well as humorous summaries of such 1980s hits as Jay McInerney’s “Bright Lights, Big City” and Tama Janowitz’s “Slaves of New York.”

Also from Washington comes word that the White House Office of Management and Budget has backed away from a proposed policy that would have given private companies almost exclusive access to government information. The move should please the American Library Assn., among other groups, which had strongly opposed the OMB’s proposal that government agencies rely on private companies to package and sell data from government files. Critics from the ALA and elsewhere expressed concern that the OMB action would give the private groups too much control over the government information. They also feared that the government would in essence be forcing the public to pay twice for the data: once through taxes to support the original compilation of the material and again in order to purchase it from private information suppliers.

In announcing its decision not to transfer the material to private hands, the OMB made a veiled acknowledgement of the protests. “OMB wishes to make clear,” the announcement said, “that its fundamental philosophy is that government information is a public asset.”

WHO’S NEXT? THUCYDIDES? American Way magazine, the in-flight publication of American Airlines, has announced that it will sponsor a Faulkner Write-Alike Contest and crown the winner at the 1990 Faulkner Conference at the University of Mississippi. Doug Crichton, editor of American Way, described the contest as offering “sanctuary to literary clonists.” He said entries should be submitted to the magazine as 250-to-500-word prose stories or essays that draw on Faulkner’s style, language, themes, characters or plots.