Model|Reading|Joy

Abstract

Abstract Expressed through the personal, this article weighs the love of reading against an English professor’s fascination with social media, in particular, Instagram reels produced using AI. The work weighs the author’s attraction to reading against a more contemporary fixation with technology, drawing on theories of literature as a conduit of feeling. It situates reading as desire (Tolkien), coping (Bettelheim), and wish fulfillment (Freud, Jameson) alongside the advice of Anthropic’s chatbot Claude, which suggests that we “model reading joy” to create a privileged affective response to literature in students. Both digital media and reading obsessions, the article suggests, arise from an intense need for connection—for an interface—with others.