In Defense of “Brain Candy”

Fun and dumb can be good for you too

Photo by Vinicius Amano on Unsplash

I remember growing up, my dad used to speak disparagingly about what he called “bubblegum pop.” Mostly, this meant Britney Spears and the Spice Girls and the Backstreet Boys. You know, not serious music like the Beatles.

Around the time I was in high school, I remember discussion of what many people called “brain candy.” They mostly meant the same thing my dad meant: fluffy fun entertainment.

Just like “health” trends and fad diets where people don’t eat anything that might be “bad” for them — like sweets and candy — consuming only serious entertainment sounds terrible to me. What a bleak, depressing life I would live without silly fun music, movies, books, etc.

When I was in my final year of university (completing an English degree), I had so much reading and writing to do that I simply didn’t have time to read books that weren’t assigned. I wandered into a used bookstore one day and picked up a copy of Robert Lynn Asprin’s Another Fine Myth, took it home and put it on the shelf above my desk…