Nonal classics

The reason for writing this post was a conversation with one journalist extremely respected with us (who wished to remain an unknown). Actually, this is what was approximately said (it was about September 1 and related problems):

// The words of your humble servant are distinguished by fat, and the interlocutor - italics //

The problem is not even that they do not read, but that it is what children and adolescents read. This is often not only classical literature, but fantasy, and only entertaining. Now there is a separation from serious prose, it is absolutely clear.

It doesn't seem to you that you are distorting, that, they say, "children do not read"? I have a lot of examples that are absolutely opposite, and as for fantasy and science fiction, this is by no means the only “reading” for teenagers. And by the way, what is meant by serious prose?

By serious prose, you need to understand serious prose. Well, let's say ...

School classical literature?

No no! School literature is a very, very sore question. You understand what the thing is, if we say that some works are required, then we implicitly lay the rest of the culture for them, if I may say so.

Well, in general, isn't our culture and is not based on the same "classic"?

Undoubtedly. But this is not the problem of school literature. The fact is that you personally decided that it was these conditional 20 authors - these are classic authors that everyone should know, and often, acquaintance with literature is limited? No. And who decided? More precisely, when? No matter how beaten it sounds, under Stalin, when the program was composed. And what was guided by - politics ...

And ideology.

Exactly. Yes, the program is slowly changing. For example, Yesenin and Fet fell into it, crept in. And Lermontov, by the way, used to be on an equal for Pushkin, only now it suddenly turned out that he was not a very good person throughout life (in the original “goat”, approx. The author). The focus is that those 20 people have not disappeared, and some of them are simply unreadable for most, although in advance are true.

Those. Do you think that because of this we get children who disappear to read anything else serious, so as not to run into the same “unreadable” rake?

In general, yes.

Yeah. And our crisis of culture is only connected with this? With the lack of serious, but perceived literature in the program? And with an imposed, "dishonest" classic? Although you and I, of course, have nothing against Pushkin.

No, well, in terms of culture, of course, we have Vaenga and Stas Mikhailov ...

Well, it's not serious ...

So the priority task now is to show good quality prose to children. So that they do not stumble about every word. That is, I would like to advise the teachers. True, they grew up in a completely Soviet time, so ...

It seemed to me very important that this dialogue is posted on display. It is difficult to argue that a similar problem exists, although the reason that was discussed is not indisputable. But you need to do something and fight the situation. What is not an option?

Such things.