Reading with Liberal Big Brother: When Preference Becomes Prejudice

by Martin Cloutier (May 2013)

The insistence on bringing reading choices into the ethical sphere turns something like a preference for reading Henry Green into a prejudice. Now when it comes to hiring and admissions practices, gender parity should be a moral issue. But intruding into the private space of my reading life is a step too far. Your reading list can be broader, smarter, more multicultural than mine, but I resist the notion it can be more moral.

http://therumpus.net/2013/03/on-being-part-of-the-problem-a-personal-response-to-the-vida-report/

http://www.salon.com/2011/08/24/obama_summer_reading/

Martin Cloutier teaches Film and Literature at Brooklyn College. His fiction is forthcoming in Shenandoah and Upstreet, and had been published in Natural Bridge, Story Quarterly, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Bryant Literary Review, The Portland Review, Bombay Gin and The Southeast Review.

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