TPO 11 Integrated a decline in reading the literature

The reading passage and the lecture both deal with the effects of declining reading of literature by the young generation. Whilst the author asserts that it adversely affects the public, culture, and future of literature, the lecturer rejects the points in the passage and provides alternative explanations for each.

First, the author notes that people can enhance their imaginations, and empathy, and fathom the characteristics of language even better by reading works of literature. By not reading it, people will be deprived of such intellectual gains. The lecturer argues against this point by pointing out interesting books on science, history, and politics. Such books cannot be considered literary works, and yet, they are well-written with high quality. Thus, assuming that only the books on literature provide one with all the benefits is not reasonable.

Second, the author maintains that the shift from reading literature to more trivial and easy-to-follow forms of entertainment has led to a decline in the level of culture overall. The speaker rejects this claim by throwing light on the cultural aspects of music and movies. In today's era, plenty of alternative forms of knowledge are readily available to the general populace. Listening to a song, or watching a historic culturally rich movie can directly impart the knowledge of traditions to the viewers.

Lastly, it is noted in the passage that the reduced number of readers forces publishers to spend fewer resources on literature. Consequently, reading as well as writing literary work is likely to decline. The lecturer rebuts this argument by drawing attention to the increased difficulty of such works. Perhaps, the decline in readers can be attributed to the authors themselves for their inclination to create unnecessarily complex pieces. Moreover, it is entirely possible that people from the past would not have read such abstruse and challenging literary books.

To sum up, the author presents points supporting the claim that the fall in the number of readers for literary books has resulted in a lot of drawbacks for society, while the speaker believes otherwise and provides arguments to support her position.