Motivation, and how it is difficult.

"And keeps most people reading terrible books"--actually, it is because people don't ask their books (and other forms of entertainment) questions that they keep reading terrible books and listening and watching slop. I have found that people don't really pay attention to what they are reading or watching or listening to. And they don't like it when others raise questions, say, about violence in entertainment. They've become desensitized.

Great literature asks questions and does it in such a way that most people completely miss what is really being asked. I always ask questions about what I am reading, listening to, watching or even performing in. There are some books, some songs, some shows that I simply will not read. There are books I've started but won't finish because life is too short to waste time with a book that does not satisfy. There are also books and songs and plays that I didn't think I would like but after I tried them I found that I was being challenged. The play "Rent" is an example. At first I did not think I would like it at all but as I continued watching it I found I cared very much about the characters, particularly Angel, and when he died I cried. Then there are other books and movies that everyone says are so great and they just leave me cold. I don't understand, for example, what is so funny about people getting tricked to have sex with someone other than who they thought they were having sex with in "Rocky Horror Show". I mean, hello, aren't we talking about a form of rape here? Is that really funny?

There was a radio station recently that caused a lot of attention when it said it would no longer play certain rappers because of the lyrics of their songs. One song had a reference to a man wanting to beat a woman's private parts like Emmett Till, the young man who was brutally murdered in Mississippi because he was black and allegedly whistled at a white woman. This is entertainment? This is what people are buying and listening to? Oh, I know already. I haven't heard the song but I betcha it has a good beat. Oh yes, if you have the right beat you can be as vile as you want because chances are nobody's listening.

Anyway sorry to get off track here but that is a subject I deeply care about. I think we all need to be aware of the messages around us. Of course if we did, there might be a whole lot of authors and entertainers out of work who are counting on us to be unaware.

Very well - I was mistaken.

I was thinking more in terms of "it's the suspense that keeps them reading" and less in terms of real curiosity - even though in most cases the answer to "who did it?" or "how will it end?" is pretty obvious. The "boring books" I referred to were my school textbooks. They held interesting information, but failed to present it in an interesting way.

I completely agree with you about messages. I never understood how many people find Every Breath You Take to be a romantic song, let alone how anyone can bring themselves to slow-dance to Where the Wild Roses Grow. Most people underthink things.

I agree with you about textbooks, most of them aren't worth the paper they are printed on. It always annoys me how people can take an interesting subject and make it boring. I am reading two books right now on weather. One is "Storm Kings" about the first tornado chasers and spotters and the other is "Lake Effect" about lake effect snow. The tornado chaser book is by far the most interesting because it goes into the human interest aspect as well as the meteorology. In fact, you don't have to know a lot about meteorology to enjoy it. I thought I'd like "Lake Effect" because I live in an area where lake effect snow is a way of life. I was wrong. It is dry and dull, with a lot of charts and graphs and very little about how lake effect snow impacts the lives of people who live in these regions. Put it this way the tornado book is an adventure story while the lake effect book lacks any sense of adventure or drama.