Do We Read Differently at Different Ages?

This exchange between Daniel Mendelsohn and Pankaf Miscraoct in the Bookends feature of the Book Review section of The New York Times included this from Mr. Mendelsohn.

"So, too, when I teach Sophocles’ Antigone. My students, who are in their late teens and early 20s, tend to identify with the fiercely idealistic young heroine, who stands up for family and religion — for freedom of conscience, as we often see it today — against the decrees of her uncle, the autocratic new ruler of the state. But over the past quarter-century I have increasingly appreciated the validity of the uncle’s claims: the necessity for order, the incoherence of a state that consists of individuals who cannot recognize the views of others."