Books ... are they really that influential?
This morning before I started on another long journey on my sections, I read an article someone has written about books that have changed their lives ... all good ... However, the title of the article was "Books which will surely change your life" ...
I wonder if that is actually an honest take on these books..
In my humble opinion, "To Kill a Mockingbird" would have not changed the minds of any judge committing black people at the present time even though the book is very well-read by thousands and thousands around the world.
Other examples of "excellent" accounts of historical events by real people are personal diaries such as "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank and "Night" by Ellie Wiesel ... and many more books written by prisoners or war, Holocaust survivors and the accounts of families escaping oppressive regimes. These are all intense accounts of real-life horrors, which will surely affect the soul of the psychologically fit reader and leave a strong imprint upon them. Yet, I cannot see how those books have changed the minds of many world leaders of today. Even though in first-world countries, the miraculous thing that is democracy allows people to select a few among the intelligent well-educated individuals to rule. I can assume safely that those leaders have probably covered some ground reading about the history of the world.
If I were an Alien, I would be astonished that there are wars going on. I take that back, may be not. A quick look at a psychology or an evolutionary human behavior class notes might shed some light of humans and their ways of life.
To be honest I don't know..
I think I find inconsistency with the description of books as life changers... For a few of us, myself included, there are indeed books that left me unhinged. Ayn Rand books left me unfocused for a more than a few days at a time. Richard Dawkins lit candles in many darkened places in my mind. Even the classic works of John Buchan left me staring in the air thinking how my father's village is too tiny in comparison, at a time when I was still young and the words Quanta and Multiverse have not been in my vocabulary.
I find the inconsistency in how my world today consists of many events that could easily match a frame from WWI or WWII ... of countries still ravaged by ignorance, hunger and hopelessness...
People read books, but books don't change them...
People allow books to change them if they wish so...
Or else, how come we have most of our historic ugliness in the present? and probably in the future...
Anyways, just a few thoughts ...
I wonder if that is actually an honest take on these books..
In my humble opinion, "To Kill a Mockingbird" would have not changed the minds of any judge committing black people at the present time even though the book is very well-read by thousands and thousands around the world.
Other examples of "excellent" accounts of historical events by real people are personal diaries such as "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank and "Night" by Ellie Wiesel ... and many more books written by prisoners or war, Holocaust survivors and the accounts of families escaping oppressive regimes. These are all intense accounts of real-life horrors, which will surely affect the soul of the psychologically fit reader and leave a strong imprint upon them. Yet, I cannot see how those books have changed the minds of many world leaders of today. Even though in first-world countries, the miraculous thing that is democracy allows people to select a few among the intelligent well-educated individuals to rule. I can assume safely that those leaders have probably covered some ground reading about the history of the world.
If I were an Alien, I would be astonished that there are wars going on. I take that back, may be not. A quick look at a psychology or an evolutionary human behavior class notes might shed some light of humans and their ways of life.
To be honest I don't know..
I think I find inconsistency with the description of books as life changers... For a few of us, myself included, there are indeed books that left me unhinged. Ayn Rand books left me unfocused for a more than a few days at a time. Richard Dawkins lit candles in many darkened places in my mind. Even the classic works of John Buchan left me staring in the air thinking how my father's village is too tiny in comparison, at a time when I was still young and the words Quanta and Multiverse have not been in my vocabulary.
I find the inconsistency in how my world today consists of many events that could easily match a frame from WWI or WWII ... of countries still ravaged by ignorance, hunger and hopelessness...
People read books, but books don't change them...
People allow books to change them if they wish so...
Or else, how come we have most of our historic ugliness in the present? and probably in the future...
Anyways, just a few thoughts ...
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