That's the question posed by The Moving Finger.
From the piece...
Because
literary readings are subconsciously viewed as the cultural equivalent of
bran. They’re good for us and therefore something we dutifully attend,
like church or a community college life drawing class. They remind us of
school. We associate them with homework, just as we might a visit to the
textile museum. Yay,
we get a day off school but, boo,
we’re still learning about stuff. Whereas activities such as mini-golf,
laser tag, electro-stim—we think of these as entertainments, something we do
for fun in our leisure time. Literary readings aren’t going to shake
their reputation as the added-fibre of our entertainment diet until the people
who organize and participate in them snap out of this mentality.
Organizers must insist to themselves and their audience that having some
shlubby author stand up and grunt into a microphone while holding a book in
front of his terrified, sun-deprived face equals one rip-snorter of a Wednesday
night.
How
do you do this? Here are some very basic strategies.
1—Serve liquor.
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