It's a bit, eh, disingenous to say that it's just LITERATURE that can and does take people outside of themselves - to 'force an encounter with the other'. Even the most unchallenging genre fiction does this. Heck, roleplaying ganes - the free-form kind on the tabletop or online, not the linear videogame kind - explicitly do this. While I agree with most of hisd conclusions the dude seems like he's starting to miss the forest for the trees. People are actively discovering new ways to fufill the need of exploration outside the self; the picture is not so grim as it seems to be when looked at through the narrow field-of-view of a literary acedemic. The Humanities are eternally neccissary but they are not eternally unchanging; the study of them needs to include new forms - the Arts and Humanities look down at new forms of expression in the oddest way, like anything novel is inherently irrelevant to the study of the greater whole.

'Encountering the other' has never been more accessable and commonplace than today with the internet. It's hard for me to imagine the degree of insularity that must have come from being unable to communicate in any significant way with people outside one's own city or town - from only being able to share with the most limited forum of like-minded thinkers. (As I post this on a niche of a niche of a niche of a website) The only point that rings wholly true with me is that laziness is an obstacle to understanding - and excuse me but WELL DUH. An educator's greatest challenge is to engage students and ignite their passion. That's pretty much a universal constant of teaching, right?

Oh those are all very good points, and I agree, this only skims the surface of what you just said in detail. I just think it's nice to see someone attempting to bring to light not only otherness, but the format in which society most basically started to access the discovery of otherness and understanding. Even if he doesn't bother to glean over the basic ideas, at the VERY least he's encouraging people to read. And that if nothing else, is something. And your point about changing, and the need for change in the humanities, is also integral, something that's commonly touched on in English classes and Literature theory.

Not saying what he's saying is utterly and all inclusive, but at LEAST it's something, which most people never even stop to think about, when we're caught up in our own little worlds, so to speak. You have to understand that otherness in the sense he's talking about is somewhat specific, I think, in this case, to a idea propagated often in the literary field. While in no way the only way in which otherness is to be and can be explored, it is one of the most vital, and one of the most original. I do believe that branching out into things like gaming, and the internet as whole is a useful means for communication and discovering identities, but you know what, read a book once in a while too.

'People should read more' is a universal truisim. I've worked in a used book store, I know the deal. If they're reading enough, they aren't reading enough good books, if they're reading enough of those they aren't fully appreciating them... The story goes on and on.

That's the case for many things though. I mean...look at the art scene we're in. How many people think we're wasting our talent doing fetish porn or various kinds, or writing fanfiction. I don't care what people read, just that they do. The kind of people I'm barking my empty attempts at are people like those in my English classes back in highschool that were asking IN AN ENGLISH CLASS why they had to read. But ignorance is bliss ect ect and so forth. I still pride myself in being able to discourse circles around people and actually manage to break the taps buffer. But again, a good point, kitten.

High school is the lowest form of life. I've done my best to forget it and have been all the better for it. :3

Amen to that kitten. A -fucking men to that x3

I mourn the passing of my books. strangely the reason i read is to get to encounter that other. it is how i get to experience other cultures since i do not get to travel. it is how i get to see other worlds that do not exist. Yeah movies can do that as well but not the same. books can often go into detail and background that a movie does not have time for.