The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Right smart prose.

But I don't pine over a mythic golden age where everyone loved Joyce and Proust; there never was one. Modern trends don't bely any dumbing down. Lamenting that today's youth or modern society isn't as smart as in the good old days has been cliche for about three millennia. Woolf never outsold Dickens or "Gone With the Wind."

The whole Twilight thing might be as vapid as Goosebumps - I don't know it well. But don't be so quick to marginalize modern bestsellers like Rowling, who fits in the tradition of popular and meaningful authors like Tolkien and Twain.

And chastising people for not sharing your allegedly high-brow taste is the hallmark of a pseud (i.e., pseudointellectual). Don't be that guy.

Instead, why not use your space to sell readers on a great book they'll like? There are plenty, but you don't have to take my word for it...

Way to go with the reading rainbow reference!

That has to be the best headline I've ever seen in my life. Well done.

This piece is incredibly self-indulgent. It's also the funniest thing I've read in months.

Obviously some people haven't read into our media past. In response to the first comment, the media has been pandering to the lowest common denominator since the 80's. Edward R. Murrow would continually quote Shakespeare on his evening news programs and it was considered the norm, not elitist. (Watch Good Night and Good Luck if you require a movie to reinforce the fact.) While I agree with you that Dickens should be in the same category as Harry Potter, the classical education required the reading of art, not commercialism. Criticizing people for what they read is a time-honored tradition. It tells you something about what they are willing to put into their minds. If you we can't do that, then we shouldn't be at a university. I agree, Ryan should stop criticizing and put up the Book of the Week in his column. Then he can get endorsements rather than pushing you to question your part in the consumerism that makes people trample eachother for gifts. We all have our indulgences, but reminding people that there is art isn't elitist, its class. Maybe someone will put down Elle Magazine and start questioning the human condition rather than what boots are on sale at Macy's.

hmmm, i dont like your approach to this, and twilight dosent suck, but twilight is very addictive. it kinda makes you feel like real world isnt worth it. what also stinks is that it makes it hard to enjoy anything non twilight. music, books, and movies besides twilight sorta fade away, not wanting to be brought up again. its an eerie phenomenon.

I'm indeed familiar with media, and don't need a movie to give a ham-fisted punch to my intellect. I concede you may have a point with the "dumb-down" of media beginning in the 80s, mostly because this has no century associated with it. American media was ablaze with "Common Sense" in the same era when Enlightenment scholars basically thought all newspapers were filth (and they weren't wrong). History is littered with ego-centric views which inevitably place a great downfall in intellect to have occurred within the span of the past generation.

Looking down one's nose at others may be time-honored, but that hardly makes it a genuine indicator of literary greatness. And the great teachers of universities will tell you they are not great teachers of universities because they tell their students they have no class. Instead, they create interest in their subjects, encourage students to explore, and love to be surrounded by eager minds. It's why Thomas Friedman and Daniel Boorstin sold millions, while great masses of snobs are still yearning for that promotion to assistant manager at Barnes and Noble. Great Shakespeare attracted the hoi polloi.

I enjoy Ryan's writing, and I don't think I really disagree with much beside the tack he takes in voicing his appreciation of literature. But I'm also pretty sure no amount of his chastising could have forced Oscar Wilde to give up fashion magazines.

*sigh* if only the Rocky Mountain News had published Twilight excerpts...

The "twilight" craze may be annoying because now a bunch of kids want to be mythical blood drinking creatures originally coined after what we would refer to today as war criminals to scare the illiterate public into church; but its just that - a craze. A few years ago everyone wanted to be a pre-teen wizard...

So, put your burning stakes away, and get your stabbing stakes out ... Ironic the 'stake' is used to kill every mythical creature, and Fortune 500 CEO.