No more books?
I know i'm not much of a reader and all but i still understand the importance of literature and how books really help the spread of knowledge. A distinctive characteristic of our species is the ability to record history and information in writing to ensure that we can progress in the future. Even when reading is not a common part of our lives, without the ability to understand and interpret concepts, how would we ever have a true understanding of our past? Besides the obvious pros for books such as entertainment, they make it possibe for the spread of ideas, which i think is the most important attribute of reading. My entire life, a majority of the things iv'e learned through school have come through books. Where would I be if books didn't exist and i couldn't read? When I think of people "burning books" today, two terms come to mind. Censorship and shortcuts. In our country at least, any piece of written work has some importance to it for somebody. When a book is banned because of its' content, i can see that as a form of "burning" someones ideas. Referring to shortcuts, Sparknotes and other sites ruin the real meaning of a book by getting rid of the concepts and storylines and replacing them with the main general ideas you can get from reading the back of the book. It makes the book lose its real value if you're not actually going to read it.
I like that idea of "burning someones ideas" I never really thought about it in that way! But I agree, they do hold information that help spread knowledge!
ReplyDeleteI really like your comment about "burning someones ideas" because that is exactly what it is. People take years to write a book and for someone to just take all that work and get rid of it is terrible and who really makes the decision of what really is a burn worthy book?
ReplyDeleteA lot of the things I have learned have come from books too, and spark notes really does ruin the meaning of books.
ReplyDeleteSo why do we continue to refer to Sparknotes? or the movie? We seem to inherently know that reading the actual book (like eating our vegetables) is good for us, but how many of us actually do it?
ReplyDeleteReading and writing is what makes a civilization, and civilization. When we look at ancient cultures where do we draw the turning points? When they start writing. Which also means that they can read. It is sharing ideas that defines us as civilizations and without books we can not do that. It reminds me of what the Captain said in Fahrenheit 451 "Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery" That is what will happen without books
ReplyDeleteI like how you thought of "shortcuts" as burning books. I guess that does take away from the importance of a book when we can just look up the main parts and read the analysis.
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