"Firm As a Rock in Her Own Principles" (But Not Necessarily a Kantian) (Immanuel Kant on Novels) (Critical Essay‪)‬

Kant and Novels In Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View (1798), (1) Kant cautions that "reading novels, in addition to causing many other mental discords [Verstimmungen des Gemuts], also ... makes distraction habitual" (7: 208), noting further that this habitual distraction leads to a type of forgetfulness "where the head, no matter how often it is filled, still remains empty like a barrel full of holes," and that it "especially seizes women who are accustomed to reading novels" (7: 185). And in his Lectures on Pedagogy (1803), (2) after asserting again that "reading novels weakens the memory," Kant goes on to recommend that "all novels should be taken out of the hands of children"--in part because of the possibility that they will "go into raptures" (herumschwarmen) (3) while reading them (9: 473).