Books Quote by David Denby
““Whether white, black, Asian, or Latino, American students rarely arrive at college as habitual readers, which means that few of them have more than a nominal connection to the past. It is absurd to speak, as does the academic left, of classic Western texts dominating and silencing everyone but a ruling elite or white males. The vast majority of white students do not know the intellectual tradition that is allegedly theirs any better than black or brown ones do. They have not read its books, and when they do read them, they may respond well, but they will not respond in the way that the academic left supposes. For there is only one ‘hegemonic discourse’ in the lives of American undergraduates, and that is the mass media. Most high schools can't begin to compete against a torrent of imagery and sound that makes every moment but the present seem quaint, bloodless, or dead.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: The New York Review of Books, 2015
The author argues that American students lack deep reading habits, making the claim of a single dominant academic discourse unrealistic; media dominates their experience.
In simple terms: Students don’t read much; media dominates.
Key Takeaway
Encourage deeper reading beyond media.
Themes
education
media influence
literacy
inequality
Mood
concerned
analytical
Type
critical
educational
When to use this quote
- high school curricula
- college freshman orientation
- library programming
- digital literacy workshops
Key Concepts
critical reading
cultural capital
media saturation
Questions to Reflect On
- What strategies can foster sustained reading?
- How can media be used to complement, not replace, literature?
A Different Perspective
Changing habits is difficult; media is pervasive.
