Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Casualit* (for Casualt*, Causalit*, etc.)

Reluctant readers (some would call them casualties of the public school system) required to rack up a few English credits before they can graduate from college might wish they had something in the course catalog called "Casual Lit." Yeah, that's the ticket. And, yeah, it would have to be lit, not "literature," perhaps even lit lite. And reading it would have to be both quick and easy. ("More fun than Cliff Notes, faster than Clifford Odets!") Maybe a sort of survey thing—some chicklit here, some fanfic there, a graphic novel or two ... perhaps a little Harry Potter, a coupla vampire stories ... some classic Superman, Mad Magazine, Tintin ... or how about that so-called "classic" they made you read in high school and then it turned out you really liked it? ... Or wait, let's see, what about maybe ... Huh? What class do I wanna take? Uhhh, any room left in Casualit*? (Today's typo was found 67 times in the OhioLINK database.)

(Lernender, or "Learning," August 2008, from Wikimedia Commons.)

Carol Reid

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