Boys Don't Read?

It's very clear that by this stage of the post-modern world we have entered the post-literate stage. A few years' back people were using the phrase 'post-truth' to describe the presidency and its lies and later on, the term post-capitalist popped up. But what does the term 'post-literate' actually mean and why are we getting it all wrong?

The term 'post-literate' refers to an exaggerated apocalyptic world in which 'children don't read'. We know this because we assume that the world of technology, artificial intelligence and social media usage ad nauseam would produce an illiterate public. This is especially true when you have young minds that are still forming. Are we correct in assuming that children don't read? Are we correct in our analysis of the fact that the post-literate society therefore means that AI will soon become the ultimate favourite of students everywhere when it comes to writing essays and producing work worthy of a degree-level education? I don't think so.

Publishers are actually seeing the opposite in young people. If we were to scale everything back to the now and look at the current class of young adults, we can see book buying is actually increasing in many areas. This is obviously inspired by places like 'BookTok' in which TikTok inspires book trends, and of course the world of social media spaces such as Twitter and Facebook and not to forget, the Reddit Book Club. But there has since been analysis to show that the vast majority of this book buying is coming from what has commonly been referred to as 'slop' literature.

Slop. A word to refer to a low-brow or often worse, AI generated, form of art or culture. Many of us can recall the horrifying 'Ghibli Slop' of Twitter in which thousands of 'slop jockeys' (this is the term I give to people who use AI to create art) descended on Twitter to try to convince others of their talents. Fortunately for humanity, this was received with massive pushback from the young people on the site. But it also revealed something else. These same young people were beginning to share their own learning and talents. These included but weren't limited to: reading, writing, drawing, sewing and much more. These came in the form of videos of them committing to these skills and producing an end result that artificial intelligence could never have the capability to produce.

So what is 'slop' literature? It is in short, literature that is enjoyed by young girls. As we analyse in culture, things are only 'cool' or 'artistic' when men do it, when young girls do it - it is 'silly' or 'slop'. Case and point: the Beatles. When they were at their beginnings, they were loved by girls and thus considered as a manufactured boy-band, but when men started becoming interested in their music as well, they were regarded as 'high art' in hindsight. Authors like Colleen Hoover and Stephenie Meyer have often been considered 'slop' literature because they are mainly read and loved by young girls.

When I taught at a college I would see several girls with books by Colleen Hoover walking around on courses such as beauty therapy and sports science, even in hairdressing they would discuss the works of this writer. I have tried to read Colleen Hoover but I can't get lost in her novels, I'm not great with them. But as long as young girls are reading, I don't care what it is. One author will inspire them to read another - Hoover has to stop writing some day and when she does, there will be another one to move on to. But the boys now think that because of internet discourse, reading is an inherently 'girly' activity.

This is incorrect.

You're not understanding me.

To think that boys do not read is incorrect. To think boys do not interact in this same way to books is a completely incorrect analysis.

When I was teaching at this same college there were a bunch of boys with anti-social behaviour records who were enjoying reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. A distinctly difficult book for a bunch of 17-year-olds who hadn't got any form of grade in English when they were at school. I spent some time doing some research into the idea that 'boys don't read' and found that this was simply point of view rather than solid fact.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a bigger market for literature when it comes to girls in the modern day (I had to use the opening to Pride and Prejudice to make my point, because believe it or not I too, am female). But that doesn't mean there is no market for the other. There may be a lesser market, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. For example: many men have accounts dedicated to literature and reading on Twitter and they focus their time on advertising that men too, can read literature written by and for women.

This is where I circle back to the AI argument. Much of the AI slop is created by men who, if asked, would not read a book that would teach them the qualities that make us human. Since the discourse is being dominated by these people we therefore have an extreme form of advertising towards young boys in which the lesson is 'reading isn't cool' and 'reading is girly and silly'.

But, there are many that rise above this. Do I therefore think there is a literacy crisis? Yes.

Children aren't reading because their parents don't read.

Children don't read because nobody reads to them.

But what you're getting wrong about the literacy crisis is not that you don't recognise that, it is that the dominant discourse will blame the girls for the boys not reading, blaming them for taking over the market. This is simply not true.

There will always be boys and men who read - and they will rise above the divisive discourse because they have the critical thinking that reading has taught them to do so.

They will retain their humanity.

Don't let social media distract you from the problem: the literacy crisis is a class issue, not a gender one and not a generational one.

I will write on this soon.

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Below, I have attached some male literature accounts to follow on Twitter, if you need a male role model on social media for your kid or male relative you will find them here:

• @JMcNallyBooks
• @readswithravi
• @OedipasKvass
• @SketchesbyBoze
• @shainreads
• @realMattKParker