Peter Usagi

@writing_rabbit

I'm a tea drinking, sushi eating, anime watching, manga & comic reading, RPG playing, transmedia storyteller. AKA: The Epic Narrative Otaku...

Joined March 2010

1.4K Following

486 Followers

2.8K Posts

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Alex & Books 📚

@AlexAndBooks_

4 days ago

The Atlantic’s new cover story about the end of reading is absolutely frightening. Here are 5 concerning facts from it: 1) 51% of adults read 0 books a year: According to the National Endowment for the Arts, which conducts the most comprehensive survey of the nation’s reading habits, fewer than half of all adults reported having read a book of any kind in 2022. 2) Reading for fun has gone from a mainstream hobby to a niche one: Americans who read for pleasure on any given day fell from 28 percent in 2004 to 16 percent in 2023. 3) Everyone is reading less: The decline in reading cuts across age groups, gender, and education levels. Even the demographics that traditionally read the most—retirees, women, and college graduates—have seen a collapse. 4) Books are getting simpler and shorter: New York Times best sellers today have sentences that are about one-third shorter than they were a century ago. 5) Kids are struggling to read and doing less of it: Fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores have slid for the past decade. From 1984 to 2025, the percentage of 13-year-olds who said they rarely or never read for fun rose from 8 to 29 percent. "Every year older a child gets, the less they like to read." For most of history, the biggest reading problem was illiteracy. People didn't know how to read books. But today the biggest problem is post-literacy. People know how to read books, but don't. A society that doesn't read loses more than just books. People lose the ability to think critically, focus deeply, and see life through multiple perspectives. The world needs you. Please consider picking up a book today. https://t.co/P8Sq3pAa6K

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✪∂тg✪ @dtg581

about 1 month ago

@simongerman600 @grantdraws

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Simon Kuestenmacher

@simongerman600

about 1 month ago

Great observation by @grantdraws. Postmodern literature hardly ever features man vs nature narratives.

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Archaeo - Histories

@archeohistories

5 months ago

They called it “exposure.” A term that sounds clinical, maybe even benign—like sunlight or fresh air. But in practice, it meant this: a newborn baby, often a girl, carried outside the city and left alone in the wild to die. In ancient Athens, this wasn’t considered murder. It was routine. A matter-of-fact part of life. People talked about it openly—as if it were no more controversial than choosing when to plant crops or how to balance the household budget. It was framed as economic necessity, sometimes even responsible parenting. The decision belonged to the father. The law backed him up. So did tradition. And it wasn’t equal. Not even close. Girls were abandoned far more often than boys. A son could carry on the family name, inherit land, perform sacred rituals, and care for aging parents. A daughter? She came with a dowry, couldn’t inherit in the same way, and was seen—across all levels of society—as a financial liability. Wealth didn’t shield her. One ancient writer said it plainly: “Everyone raises a son, even if he is poor. But a daughter? Even the rich expose her.” There was no illusion of mercy. No comforting story to soften the cruelty. Some babies might have been taken in by strangers or trafficked into slavery, but that was a fluke—not the plan. Most died, slowly and alone—of cold, hunger, or animals. And everyone knew it. The practice didn’t just thin out the population. It carved a deep message into the cultural bedrock: that female life was optional. Conditional. Disposable. Generations were raised with that belief quietly embedded in their worldview. Mothers? They had almost no say. Once the baby was born, it was laid at the father’s feet. Literally. That was the custom. He looked down and decided: raise or discard. It’s a part of classical civilization that doesn’t show up in the gleam of marble statues or the echo of great speeches. While Athens was laying the intellectual foundation for democracy, philosophy, and reason, it was also drawing a hard line—before a girl could even cry out—about who mattered and who didn’t. © Women In World History #archaeohistories