Comments on: Style Trends in Fiction http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/ concept to publication Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:59:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: More links « Readers Guide to . . . http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/comment-page-1/#comment-40440 More links « Readers Guide to . . . Sat, 03 May 2008 00:19:42 +0000 http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/#comment-40440 [...] Published May 2, 2008 books , links Here is a link to someone who has tried to analyze the readability of Pulitzer prize winners over [...] [...] Published May 2, 2008 books , links Here is a link to someone who has tried to analyze the readability of Pulitzer prize winners over [...]

]]> By: Style Trends in Fiction « Lake Oz Fic Chick http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/comment-page-1/#comment-27989 Style Trends in Fiction « Lake Oz Fic Chick Mon, 17 Dec 2007 20:14:38 +0000 http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/#comment-27989 [...] rightreading blog uses Amazon.com’s readability calculations to take a gander at changes in style in Pulitzer Prize winners over the [...] [...] rightreading blog uses Amazon.com’s readability calculations to take a gander at changes in style in Pulitzer Prize winners over the [...]

]]> By: xensen http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/comment-page-1/#comment-25236 xensen Fri, 16 Nov 2007 04:15:52 +0000 http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/#comment-25236 An interesting take, Robert. It would also help to account for the decline of book reviews. An interesting take, Robert. It would also help to account for the decline of book reviews.

]]> By: Robert http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/comment-page-1/#comment-25222 Robert Fri, 16 Nov 2007 01:24:07 +0000 http://www.rightreading.com/blog/2007/11/13/style-trends-in-fiction/#comment-25222 Big words are a sign of small times. It seems to me this trend in Pulitzer-Prize-winning fiction only demonstrates the polarization between popular reading and "literature." Sure, newspapers have gone up and world literacy is doing well: http://tinyurl.com/389s8y -- but magazines have been dumbing down for decades. Reading level over time is the kind of research that seems to end up getting used to blame public school teachers: http://tinyurl.com/2jhbau but in the end, my personal and highly subjective independent survey says that "literature" and "the stuff most people like to read" are diverging fast -- and not for lack of trying in the classroom. Concision has become a forgotten virtue in the digital age. Big words are a sign of small times.

It seems to me this trend in Pulitzer-Prize-winning fiction only demonstrates the polarization between popular reading and “literature.”

Sure, newspapers have gone up and world literacy is doing well:

http://tinyurl.com/389s8y

– but magazines have been dumbing down for decades. Reading level over time is the kind of research that seems to end up getting used to blame public school teachers:

http://tinyurl.com/2jhbau

but in the end, my personal and highly subjective independent survey says that “literature” and “the stuff most people like to read” are diverging fast — and not for lack of trying in the classroom.

Concision has become a forgotten virtue in the digital age.

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