Diagnostic Essay
Reading literature is not a lost art because of several reasons. First of all, reading literature is still a necessity and a large part of schools and English classes. Novels are also the often needed spark to create interest in many television and movie creations. Likewise, movies also create an interest in their literature counterparts that is not soon to die out.
In English classes all throughout schools today, the reading of literature can be found. Many schools even require their students to read novels over summer vacations, often encouraging analysis of these novels through projects, tests, and/or assignments. In David L. Ulin’s The Lost Art of Reading, he states that his son, Noah, had read The Great Gatsby and noted the beauty of the writing. These are often the types of novels chosen for English classes, as they make students think and hopefully appreciate these works.
Literature is often the cause of even greater things. The vast majority of films originate from literary works that come about long before a movie was considered. However, novel to movie conversions are not often made unless there is a considerable interest in the novel. These pieces of literature are often the foundation for the success for any film. Whenever the novels audience has already been established, there is almost an automatic audience for the movie as well. Ulin quotes a man by the name of Kurt Vonnegut, who stated that “then television, with no malice whatsoever – just a better buy for advertisers – knocked the magazines out of business.” He was arguing that media demolished literature. Media and literature, however, appear to work more together rather than against each other.
Just as literature helps media, media also does the same for literature. Take fans of a popular series such as Harry Potter or Twilight. Although there were extremely strong fan bases before the creation of their movie counterparts, these movies helped to increase their...