WASHINGTON – The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is crediting the steadily eroding reading levels and puerile plot structures of modern literature for a trend-reversing upsurge in U.S. adult reading rates. According to its recently released report, “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” for the first time since 1982, the percentage of American adults who claim to have read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen.

Ani Adagio, chairman of the NEA, is convinced the upward trend is due solely to relaxed readability levels and “remedial plot structures.”

“To improve any measured success rate, you must either increase your real achievement or lower your standards. Clearly, we, as a society, have chosen the latter,” she said, pointing to recent reading fads such as “Harry Potter,” “Bridget Jones,” and “any of the pre-chewed pulp churned out by Oprah’s book club.”

The NEA claims 50.2% of U.S. adults managed to read at least one whole poem over the past year

Indeed, a generation ago, 1,000-page epics such as “Atlas Shrugged” were able to command best-seller status with complex plotlines that treated abstract concepts such as philosophy, politics and other metaphysical subjects.

“Writing like that is like flossing with piano wire to the modern reader,” said Adagio. “For today’s author, you’re much more likely to retain readers’ attentions with characters sporting Elven ears, spacesuits, or, preferably, both.”

Even more troubling, Adagio admits, is the fact that it is impossible to gauge the accuracy of the survey, in which 50.2% of U.S. adults claim to have read at least one poem, short story, play or novel in the last year.

“Are they counting online reading?” asks Adagio. “Does someone who just went online to check out the lyrics to ‘Big Pimpin’ qualify that as having read a poem? We don’t know, but we suspect so.”

Adagio suspects that an “Internet-adjusted literacy rate” of about 10% is more likely. “But we just don’t have the funding to confirm that.”

Originally posted 2009-01-13 20:05:07. Republished by Blog Post Promoter