It is extremely painful to read something very simple for a sustained period of time. You would think that you would be able to breeze through common sense, right? But, oh no, how I have underestimated you, simplicity. Having to read something that is so obvious yet so painstakingly spelled out for you is like trying to walk through a mud pit. Sure, you are walking, but you are pretty much dragging each step and that single step tires you out twice as much as walking twenty steps on grass. But, common sense that is pre-digested for you (if there is anything to digest, that is) and phrased in slightly different ways seems to be the only thing that people are bothered to read.
Then, has the intellectual capacity or at least the intellectual willingness of the masses been smaller than I thought? Has it shrunk through time, because of the hectic pace of life?
Take, for example, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (non-fiction, right? I think...). Now, other than the fact that the book is dry as sand, it's not too much of an easy read. But, wasn't that book a trade book for the masses? It sure wasn't a textbook for academics. I can't say for sure whether it was popular or not when it was first published, but if most literate adults could digest that sort of a book, shouldn't people now be able to read a slightly not-so-simple book as well? (Seeing that more of us are educated now than during Franklin's time.)
Maybe, it's a time thing; we are just too busy. Yep, I understand. But, instead of trying to read an entire easy book in a couple of hours, couldn't we read a portion of a harder book in that same amount of time? Are we too impatient to not be able to finish a book? This seems to be a willingness issue, our unwillingness to challenge not only the way, but just how much or how deeply we think about the world.
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