‘This is just elitist bulls—t’: College professor sparks fierce debate over criticism of students who like ‘Percy Jackson’

A college professor’s criticism of his first-year students’ enjoyment of the Percy Jackson series sparked a fierce debate online about whether these students’ reading preferences genuinely indicate the decline of their reading comprehension and abilities.

The debate arose after The Atlantic published an article about “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books.” The article examined how reading habits have potentially changed for the worse recently. Author Rose Horowitch spoke to several professors who noticed students, including those at “elite colleges,” increasingly struggling with reading assignments. Columbia University’s Professor of Humanities, Nicholas Dames, has taught students since 1998. Two decades ago, he could assign students typical classic reading assignments, such as Pride & Prejudice, without issue. Now, though, he claims he can’t assign such readings without students openly complaining about the difficulty and labeling keeping up with reading loads “impossible.”

There are numerous reasons for the alleged decrease in the number of books college students read, including shortening attention spans due to social media and secondary education’s shift to excerpts instead of books due to standardized testing. While the article was filled with interesting anecdotes and observations, one part in particular raised eyebrows. At one point, Dames laments that his first-year students now commonly list Percy Jackson as their favorite book, whereas past students would list Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre. While some readers also lamented the phenomenon, others questioned whether students enjoying Percy Jackson was genuinely problematic.

Is it wrong for college students to like Percy Jackson?

On social media, the excerpt about Percy Jackson began circulating. One user shared it with the caption, “This f**king sucks, man.” The Tweet quickly set off a debate, with users either agreeing or disagreeing with the sentiment. One pointed out that calling Percy Jackson “YA” literature was generous, as it is more of a children’s series. However, others suggested that the problem wasn’t that the college students liked Percy Jackson but that they admitted it openly. One user claimed they should be “embarrassed” to tell their class their “favorite book is for nine-year-olds,” pointing out how students in the past would lie about their favorite books to “sound smart.” Some even suggested that the problem extended beyond students and that people in general only read “smut” or books for children nowadays.

However, many users vehemently defended Percy Jackson. One user pointed out that the professor asked what their “favorite” book was, not what they thought the best book was. It feels strange to ask someone their opinion on what they enjoy reading and then classify their reading habits as “grim.” Most first-year students are 17 – 19 years old, which certainly shouldn’t be too old to enjoy and recall their favorite YA books. Many social media users also pointed out that Percy Jackson is a wonderful series with its LGBTQ+ and disability representation and intriguing takes on tradition and mythology. A lot of students probably see themselves reflected in the characters. One user went as far as to suggest that reading habits aren’t deteriorating and the viewpoint is just “elitist bulls**t.”

While The Atlantic article highlighted some genuinely concerning details about reading comprehension in college students, social media users are likely correct that liking Percy Jackson may not be substantial proof of these issues. Perhaps some of the concern is about appearances rather than the book itself. Dames mentioned his previous students hailing Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as their favorite books, but there’s no evidence he asked these students for proof that they ever even read the books. What if these students just listed these books to keep up the appearance of “elite college students”? Perhaps students today are just getting more honest than students of the past and feel less of a need to present themselves as sophisticated, cultured intellectuals just to prove they belong in an Ivy League college.

It is also strange that Dames showed concern for students not reading enough but then criticized students for reading Percy Jackson. If there is so much concern about the decline in reading, shouldn’t it be encouraging that these students are reading at all? Additionally, one’s favorite book sounds like a very inaccurate way to gauge one’s reading skills. I was always way ahead of my peers in reading and writing, but when I was a first-year college student, my favorite book was also a YA novel: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I comprehended and enjoyed classics in school but always gravitated toward YA literature outside class. It felt nice to have a reprieve from more challenging works and instead read books with modern characters I could relate more to. It wasn’t until after college that I started to enjoy more challenging adult novels in my free time.

There does seem to be a shift in reading preferences and comprehension, but not all of these shifts have to be negative. These changes could reflect readers feeling more freedom to read for fun and more confident in establishing their own likes and interests instead of feeling pressure to appear well-read to their peers. Ultimately, writing off students for not sharing one’s sophisticated taste in literature sounds far more detrimental to students’ reading performance than a first-year student liking Percy Jackson.