'Needlessly Limited Accommodation'

That certain mediocre books are judged “classics,” at least by teachers and librarians desperate to stock their shelves, fill bulletin boards and placate administrators, is well-known and nobody says much about it. I’m uncertain what mysterious collective formulates this canon and stamps it nihil obstat, ensuring that young minds won’t be sullied by its contents. Books on the list are usually distinguished by the conspicuous presence of a “message” that can be easily extracted from the text like a rotten tooth.

I’m thinking of such titles as To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath and Animal Farm, not to mention the plague of “YA” novels. The emphasis on a work’s message certainly makes it easier to teach. No need to deal with those pesky, elusive literary qualities. Consider the long-term impact this has on readers. Reading becomes a sort of forensic exercise. A formulaic “good book” confirms the values you already hold. 

No one is suggesting that your average fifth-grader should be reading Ulysses (though prodigies do exist). Please, never discourage a curious or precocious child from reading. His or her classmates (and teachers, sometimes) will take care of that. Ambitious readers learn to go underground and communicate with others like them. Marriages and lifelong friendships have grown out of such relations. One of my favorite literary essay collections is Pleasures and Speculations (1940) by Walter de la Mare. In his introduction, de la Mare suggest a moderating approach when choosing a book to read:

 

“No reviewer, no common reader, no lover of books, however, is likely to spend his days solely in the consumption of masterpieces. They are in the nature of touchstones, and talismans, and the miraculous; and a diet restricted to them may be the supreme ideal. Yet there is much to be said for what falls short of this elevated standard, and even far short. The ‘hundred best books’ — when there may be only ninety and nine! Perfection may prove a sort of stubborn mental pemmican for otherwise admirable digestions and an extreme fastidiousness an ivory tower, with needlessly limited accommodation.”

 

Why not suggest de la Mare’s own Memoirs of a Midget, or one of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novels? Or Robinson Crusoe. Dickens. Books cherished by generations of common readers, people who read almost exclusively for pleasure.