Why I think today's generation is no less or more cultured than its predecessors

I remember sometime last year I read a column in our department's student run magazine about how culture has deteriorated because people listen to the likes of Bieber in place of Mozart, and The Hunger Games in place of Jane Eyre. It really pisses me off when I hear people rant about stuff like that. What business have you dictating the state of society and where it ought to be directed? People are going to like what they want. Frankly, I don't understand why people can't have the same attitude as Ray Bradbury when it comes to reading in that we should read what we love and love what we read and stop when we don't. I tried reading Jane Eyre, it is excruciating. It's a hard read. It's probably a really good read, I wouldn't know because I never finished, but it's so hard that I don't understand the purpose of subjecting yourself towards that kind of labour if you're not specifically devoting yourself to 19th century English literature.

Correct me if I'm wrong but a good book should be understood because that's the very purpose of language is it not? If it's also enjoyable to read then you get a double whamo! But when you're harassed by page after page of what could technically be foreign words, which have become that way to us because English has thus transformed since the time that book was written, why should you suddenly be deemed plebeian for not understanding or not enjoying the reading experience? I don't think liking something with more relevant settings, issues, and vocabulary such as those found in Suzanne Collins' popular series suddenly warrants a crucifixion. I just read The Hunger Games and it was great! Sure I thought that some of the exposition the readers probably could do without, and that the word usage is arguably less poetic than say, Steinbeck's works, but also seeing as the books are probably targeted for a younger audience, why not? If it is consistent with the hero's character throughout the book and doesn't really spoil the storyline (and let's face it, how many of us don't over-analyse, and mull over and over in our head the things that are happening to and around us that we don't really understand?) If Jane and Katniss project different voices in their respective books it is because culture and fashion has mutated over time. Personally I don't think this means that they diminish through the process, they change, yes, but never diminish. How do you even quantify something like the quality of culture anyway?

It's so random that I would remember that stray article of all things, though. Maybe because the writer just sounded so cocky and made me want to clock their face out (even though I'm generally a very peaceful person) and after having read the book he/she criticised the most for being simple and uncultured only to find that it absolutely did not deserve the kind of shit he/she threw at the work. I mean, if it gets kids more interested in picking up a book and reading then what is the big problem? Eventually, if they want to, they might venture into the classics that this particular column writer praised so very highly because a good story is a good story regardless of when it was concocted. But seriously, people are always going to say that the mainstream is not as tasteful as the stream by memory lane but eventually we'll grow to the idea that maybe the fact that the two are so different is a good thing, perhaps even admirable.