A swift counter to the 'gateway drug' proposal in the letter below.
Dear Editor,
I write to take respectful umbrage with Jarred McGinnis' recent letter regarding the need to reach out beyond the narrow niches of existing readers and writers. This sounds like A Good Thing, in principle, and it's obvious that none of us wants to throw stones into such a small pond that the ripples never ripple out of view.
But there's an underlying assumption to this kind of talk; an assumption that writing and reading is A Social Good, something which must be taken to people as a matter of public policy, the focus of outreach programmes and volunteerism and the rest of it. And indeed there are many social and community projects which use literacy and literature as a vehicle for elevating aspirations and achievements. But in itself, what if good writing and deep reading is actually just a niche interest? A matter of personal taste? Something to put down under 'Hobbies' on your CV? Why does literature feel this need to spread the good word; to talk about 'the converted' in the vocabulary of evangelism?
Have you ever seen darts clubs running outreach programmes?
Yours,
A Reader.
