Reading or not reading? That is the question

Rose Horowitch’s article in The Atlantic August issue has got The New Publishing Standard all riled up (and me too; I had to force myself to finish it). TNPS has published two articles debunking Ms H. Here’s the first and here’s the second one. He focuses a lot on Horowitch’s analytical tool of measuring sentence length. She stands convicted of a simplistic belief that longer sentences equal more intelligence. Ms Horowitch’s piece is an impressive attempt to prove the contention that nobody reads anymore. It appears to be fact-packed, though upon examination it turns out to be more opinion-packed. One would almost have to admire it if it weren’t such nonsense. Truth-shading or truthiness is indulged in throughout. For instance we’re told how students at Harvard were unable to understand A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, one of them claiming to have had to use ChatGPT to translate the book. It’s been a long time since I read the book, but I clearly remember a feature of it being…