Vickie Oddino Asked

Vickie Oddino, who teaches at Mission College, gave an interesting lecture entitled "Can We Be Objective about Literature?"

One question she asked was: what should you tell the earnest young person who has been deeply and favorably touched by some literary work that... you otherwise judge to be worthless.

I would say that the experience of being touched by a book is a precious one - and too rare nowadays! So the proper response is never "oh, that piece of trash?" The proper response is more like "it's great that a book spoke to you - tell me more about it."

Though you think a certain book is dreadful,
if it's given someone else a headful
of dreams,
to that extent, it's better than it seems.

Never scorn the tiny spark
that blossoms slightly in the dark.
Fan it, rather, into fire -
make the flames grow higher.