[lmm]

> Is the problem participation? Or is it that entire years are devoted to reading ancient books with bad English and unrelatable themes simply because of tradition? Shakespeare wrote some neat plays but they’re not helping the reading epidemic.

Were Shakespeare's plays "relatable" 370 years after being published and then suddenly became unrelatable in the last 30? I think not. If students' participation in classes about them has changed, it's not because of the plays aging.

[sethammons]

The ancient shadow puppet story tellers were good enough evening entertainment until books, radio, tv, and the internet and porn came out.

I would argue the last 30 years have had more attention-competition than most of the last 370. These kids are actually different by growing up in a very different world.