There have been reports and essays written on this topic so how can I focus on it for a mere blog post? Simply by looking at it from the viewpoint of your characters.
In your stories, do your characters read? If so, are they just reading things like old legends, myths, maps and other documents that will help them complete their task? Or do they read for pleasure too? And what would the fiction in their world be about? Would they have things like crime novels, say, or would it all be epic sagas featuring the renowned ancestors of their world?
What would non-fiction cover? The history of their world, geography etc? Would say people living in one part of your world be encouraged to read about other parts of that world or do they just stick to reading what is favoured by their culture?
It is true you can tell a lot about a society by its attitude to literature, especially if it is the type to ban books that don't meet with its approval! So what is your society like here? Do your characters fit in with it or are they keen to read books they're not meant to?
In your stories, do your characters read? If so, are they just reading things like old legends, myths, maps and other documents that will help them complete their task? Or do they read for pleasure too? And what would the fiction in their world be about? Would they have things like crime novels, say, or would it all be epic sagas featuring the renowned ancestors of their world?
What would non-fiction cover? The history of their world, geography etc? Would say people living in one part of your world be encouraged to read about other parts of that world or do they just stick to reading what is favoured by their culture?
It is true you can tell a lot about a society by its attitude to literature, especially if it is the type to ban books that don't meet with its approval! So what is your society like here? Do your characters fit in with it or are they keen to read books they're not meant to?
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