{"id":125393,"date":"2018-06-15T09:07:37","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T13:07:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=125393"},"modified":"2018-06-15T13:51:40","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T17:51:40","slug":"need-a-fathers-day-gift-a-novel-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2018\/06\/15\/need-a-fathers-day-gift-a-novel-proposal\/","title":{"rendered":"Need a Father\u2019s Day Gift? A Novel Proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, Father\u2019s Day is surely the hardest. What do you get for the member of the family\u2014at least if your dad is anything like mine\u2014who claims to never want anything? Peruse the mall in early June and the choices appear to fall into three categories: 1. yawningly boring shirt-and-tie combos, 2. assorted World\u2019s Greatest Dad paraphernalia, and 3. gadgets. So many gadgets. Bluetooth-enabled titanium-alloy grilling spatulas. Bottle openers made from machine-gun rounds. Star Wars waffle makers.<\/p>\n

There are, of course, messages encoded in each category. A shirt and tie says, Keep working, Pops. Anything labeled World\u2019s Greatest Dad is an overcompensation, either on your part or his. And the gadgets, no matter how futuristic or flashy, tell Dad he\u2019s basically a child in want of a toy. For the last several years, my own father and I have sent each other cards with a one-dollar bill inside (basically a handshake by mail) and called it even.<\/p>\n

But the best Father\u2019s Day gifts might be the most novel. I\u2019m not talking about the Apple Watch or robot vacuum cleaners. I\u2019m talking about actual novels. Books.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Several widely publicized scientific studies have shown that reading literary fiction (as opposed to romance or adventure stories) promotes both empathy and \u201cpro-social\u201d behavior\u00a0[i]<\/a> [ii]<\/a>. In other words, a good novel helps us to imagine the world from someone else\u2019s point of view. Later studies have expanded on these results to show that literature can even contribute to a more just and inclusive world. Researchers at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, for example, found that reading literary fiction reduced prejudice toward Arab Muslims [iii]<\/a>. Although the studies specifically cite fiction, the elements of storytelling they describe\u2014\u201creplete with complicated individuals\u201d and using \u201cdescriptions of sensations, analogies, and figurative language\u201d\u2014are also hallmarks of literary memoirs and literary journalism. (John McPhee\u2019s Coming into the Country<\/em> and Laura Hillenbrand\u2019s Unbroken<\/em> both come to mind.) It\u2019s not necessarily the make-believe aspects of the story that matter but rather its ability to disrupt stereotypes and challenge conventions.<\/p>\n

Ironically, there\u2019s nothing revolutionary about the findings. They only confirm what writers and literature professors have been proclaiming for centuries. The Victorian novelist George Eliot writes in 1859, \u201cThe only effect I ardently long to produce by my writings, is that those who read them should be better able to imagine<\/em> and to feel<\/em> the pains and the joys of those who differ from themselves in everything but the broad fact of being struggling, erring human creatures.\u201d Good books, in short, make us better people.<\/p>\n

Sadly, however, Americans are reading fewer literary works than ever. A 2015 survey by the National Endowment for the Arts reported that only 43.1 percent of adults read at least one<\/em> work of literature in a given year\u00a0[iv]<\/a>. That\u2019s a steep decline from 1982, when the reading rate was 57 percent. Separate the data by gender, and numbers get worse. Fewer than 36 percent of American men, barely one in three, bothered to pick up a novel, a book of poems, or a play. The reasons for the drop-off are likely multifaceted, but the NEA notes that \u201cliterature now competes with an enormous array of electronic media\u201d that have \u201cincreasingly drawn Americans away from reading.\u201d And lest we forget, nothing has fueled the 24-7 accessibility of electronic media more than the smartphone, the epitome of latest-and-greatest, gotta-have-it gadgets.<\/p>\n

In the year and a half since President Trump took office, a great deal of attention has been paid to the problems of toxic masculinity\u2014which is to say a manhood that reinforces gender stereotypes and views women as sexual objects while at the same time denying the prevalence of sexism in American culture. Toxic masculinity runs the gamut from the irritating (e.g., manspreading on crowded busses and subways) to the truly horrific, with a vast country of boorishness, aggression, and weak-sauce \u201cboys will be boys\u201d dismissals in between. At its core, toxic masculinity isn\u2019t a failure of genetics; it\u2019s a failure of empathy. A failure to consider not simply one\u2019s own power but also the humanity and vulnerabilities of others. To treat others the way we\u2019d like to be treated. The very values literature aims to impart.<\/p>\n

According to a poll released last Inauguration Day, two-thirds of men who identified as Republican weren\u2019t bothered by the president\u2019s comments or behavior in the Access Hollywood<\/em> tape\u00a0[v]<\/a>. A year later, more than three-quarters of Republican men\u2014and nearly half of all<\/em> men\u2014continue to support the Trump presidency [vi]<\/a>. That means supporting the administration\u2019s most draconian proposals, including the travel ban, the wall along the U.S\u2013Mexico border, and the shrinking of the programs and agencies intended to aid the less fortunate and protect the environment. The president himself has boasted about his distaste for books. If reading literature is known to promote empathy, it\u2019s not much of a stretch to assume that not<\/em> reading would have the opposite effect.<\/p>\n

So this Father\u2019s Day, skip the Brookstone and head to the bookstore. Spend a while picking out a book for Dad\u2014a good story, with juicy descriptions about struggling, erring human creatures. Looking for a way to connect with Dad on a deeper level? Buy two copies and propose reading it together. The book will give you something to talk about the next time you call. And in more ways than one, it\u2019ll be the most thoughtful gift he receives all year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

David McGlynn is the author of<\/em> One Day You\u2019ll Thank Me: Lessons From an Unexpected Fatherhood<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0from Counterpoint Press<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/p>\n

<\/a>Notes<\/p>\n

[i]<\/a> Kidd, David Comer and Castano, Emanuele, \u201cReading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind.\u201d Science<\/em>,\u00a018 Oct 2013: Vol. 342, Issue 6156, pp. 377\u2013380.<\/p>\n

[ii]<\/a> Johnson, D. R., **Cushman, G., **Borden, L., & **McCune, M. (2013). \u201cPotentiating empathic growth: Generating imagery while reading fiction increases empathy and prosocial behavior.\u201d\u00a0The Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts<\/em>, 7, 306\u2013312.<\/p>\n

[iii]<\/a> Johnson, D. R., **Jasper, D. M., **Griffin, S., & **Huffman, B. (2013). \u201cReading narrative fiction reduces Arab-Muslim prejudice and offers a safe haven from intergroup anxiety.\u201d Social Cognition<\/em>, 31, 578\u2013598.<\/p>\n

[iv]<\/a> https:\/\/www.arts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2012-sppa-feb2015.pdf<\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> The State of the Union on Gender Equality, Sexism, and Women\u2019s Rights. Results from a National Survery Conducted by PerryUndem. January 17, 2017. https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/336804316\/PerryUndem-Gender-Equality-Report?content=10079&ad_group=Online+Tracking+Link&campaign=Skimbit,+Ltd.&keyword=ft500noi&source=impactradius&medium=affiliate&irgwc=1<\/a><\/p>\n

[vi]<\/a> Morning Consult National Tracking Poll #171117 December 1\u20133, 2017. https:\/\/morningconsult.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/171117_crosstabs_POLITICO_v1_AP-1.pdf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  If Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year, Father\u2019s Day is surely the hardest. What do you get for the member of the family\u2014at least if your dad is anything like mine\u2014who claims to never want anything? Peruse the mall in early June and the choices appear to fall into three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1493,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31215],"tags":[17,28058,13467,2591,6432,34090,20371,13609,504,34092,747,53,34091,23954],"class_list":["post-125393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-on-books","tag-books","tag-dad","tag-empathy","tag-fathers-day","tag-george-eliot","tag-gift","tag-gifting","tag-literary-fiction","tag-literature","tag-manspreading","tag-novels","tag-reading","tag-star-wars-waffle-makers","tag-toxic-masculinity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNeed a Father\u2019s Day Gift? 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