{"634647":{"#nid":"634647","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"A Side Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic? Reading Got a Lot Harder","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/people\/faculty\/yaszek\u0022\u003ELisa Yaszek\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003Eprofessor in the School of Literature, Media and Communication, was quoted in the article \u0026quot;A Side Effect of the Covid-19 Pandemic? Reading Got a Lot Harder\u0026quot; in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cem\u003EChronicle of Higher Education\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Eon April 20, 2020.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe article explores another unfortunate consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, one that has affected even people not afflicted by the virus: The difficulty of focusing on their work. Yaszek discussed the intersection of that issue with the world of science fiction, one of the focuses of her scholarship.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EExcerpt:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cblockquote\u003E\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELisa Yaszek is also trying to be kind to herself. These days, the last thing the professor of science-fiction studies wants to do is read more science fiction. She already feels as if she\u0026rsquo;s living through a disaster, Yaszek said. She doesn\u0026rsquo;t need the excitement of somebody else\u0026rsquo;s.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EOf course, she said, some might find comfort in dystopian stories, like E.M. Forster\u0026rsquo;s \u0026ldquo;The Machine Stops,\u0026rdquo; about a world where society lives underground, reliant on a giant machine to provide its needs, and the machine breaks down. The parallels are obvious.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ELots of science fiction is inherently optimistic, said Yaszek, who teaches at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It\u0026rsquo;s about the possibility that people might put down their differences and work together. Reading those narratives can feel discomforting right now, she said, because when you\u0026rsquo;re done, you return to this imperfect world, where people are making imperfect choices.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/A-Side-Effect-of-the-Covid-19\/248568\u0022\u003ERead the full article here.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"35266","created_gmt":"2020-04-22 16:58:58","changed_gmt":"2020-04-22 16:59:33","author":"ifrazer3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"You in The News","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/A-Side-Effect-of-the-Covid-19\/248568","dateline":{"date":"2020-04-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-04-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"628451":{"id":"628451","type":"image","title":"Lisa Yaszek","body":null,"created":"1572548549","gmt_created":"2019-10-31 19:02:29","changed":"1572552353","gmt_changed":"2019-10-31 20:05:53","alt":"","file":{"fid":"239346","name":"Lisa Yaszek 740Xx scale.small_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Lisa%20Yaszek%20740Xx%20scale.small__0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Lisa%20Yaszek%20740Xx%20scale.small__0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":91906,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Lisa%20Yaszek%20740Xx%20scale.small__0.jpg?itok=GyMYIA8Y"}}},"media_ids":["628451"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"167943","name":"School of Literature Media and Communication"},{"id":"1616","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}