Charles Dickens' 200th Birthday

Let me be straight forward: I am not a huge Dickens fan.  I've only read ATale of Two Cities, and I started (never finished) Great Expectations, but I do intend to see the new movie with Ralph Fiennes when it comes out.  Like most people, I've watched A Christmas Carol, but I never read it.  I also watched David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, but never read them.  The funny thing is that Dickens' well-developed characters ensure that the movies do not usually translate that well.  But alas, I haven't invested in reading his stories.  I'm just not that into him.

BUT today he interests me because Google is dedicating its graphics to him and also because so many people think that Dickens' stories are good morality tales.  In fact, philosopher Martha Nussbaum includes Dickens in a recommended diet of classic reading that she believes teaches people how to be upstanding and moral citizens.  Well, right now I'm on the verge of starting a career in studying the boundaries of literature and storytelling in effecting social change, which includes encouraging or conditioning people to be moral.  The more I read and think about this matter, the more I disbelieve that literature has that kind of effect.  The effect it is more likely to have is an internal feeling of change or affirmation in one's perspective, but think about it for yourself, did you ever specifically take action in real life based on a book or story that changed your way of thinking?

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye has been--hands down--the single most influential piece of literature on my life.  I've often said and still believe that this book made me see the gray area of moral dilemmas in a way I could only abstractly imagine before reading that book.  And yet, I fail to be able to trace this experience directly to anything other than my career path.  Now, that is a big deal, don't get me wrong.  But choosing a career path and discovering a personal passion is different than morality.  I believe in the power of literature to deepen and complicate the way we think about things, including moral imperatives, but I'm less convinced than I ever have been about how that thinking translates into specific action.  If you disagree, by all means, please leave a comment here explaining your position or even send me a personal email since I am making this argument in my thesis as we speak.

Anyway, I haven't really said much about Dickens here, but I guess part of what I'm saying is that I don't know that it really matters that I haven't read his works.  This is blasphemy for someone about to complete a master's degree in English, no doubt.  And let me be clear that I think reading matters--it matters a whole lot.  I'm definitely not saying that it doesn't matter; I guess I'm just skeptical of literature as didactic.