If not, then we should at least form our own little underground book bootlegging club once the written word has been banned for good.
You would be surprised by how many people out there think that books should no longer exist--educated people, I might add. I'm not talking about just printed books either, but e-books too. I once had an acquaintance of mine say that books were the lowest form of entertainment next to television. His choices for the top two?
1. Video games
2. The Internet
I must agree with him, because we all know how smart and stimulating people on the Internet are. If there was a sarcasm font I would be using it in bold right now.
It absolutely baffles me to see people all around me claiming to be intellectuals and stating that books are beneath intelligent people.
I hate to break it to you geniuses, but you have the same opinion as Kanye West. That's right. In my mind, you are a clone of the epitome of ignorance and intolerance that is Mr. West, regardless of how many degrees you have.
Any avid reader knows that real life (if there is such a thing) would be nothing without the stories that shape it. Think about it.
How differently would you perceive things--how many events in your life would have been affected---had you never read Harry Potter? Or Animal Farm? What about Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World?
I don't think that Bradbury's world of book censorship will come to pass like we expect it to. Maybe people will just stop reading books because there aren't any pictures that move, and start watching movies that are mostly pretty lights and fireworks with no plots because there is nothing more dangerous than the opportunity to think. If human beings think, they come to two terrible and frightening realizations: they have the ability to create things and they can't always control what they create. Whether it be a paranoia turned reality or an entire world springing to life in the wake of a moving cursor, we fear what we create because it come from us and yet is not of us. It's bigger and greater.
Writers do not conquer this fear. We merely learn to embrace it and thrive on it.
Image via Wikipedia
You would be surprised by how many people out there think that books should no longer exist--educated people, I might add. I'm not talking about just printed books either, but e-books too. I once had an acquaintance of mine say that books were the lowest form of entertainment next to television. His choices for the top two?
1. Video games
2. The Internet
I must agree with him, because we all know how smart and stimulating people on the Internet are. If there was a sarcasm font I would be using it in bold right now.
It absolutely baffles me to see people all around me claiming to be intellectuals and stating that books are beneath intelligent people.
I hate to break it to you geniuses, but you have the same opinion as Kanye West. That's right. In my mind, you are a clone of the epitome of ignorance and intolerance that is Mr. West, regardless of how many degrees you have.
Any avid reader knows that real life (if there is such a thing) would be nothing without the stories that shape it. Think about it.
How differently would you perceive things--how many events in your life would have been affected---had you never read Harry Potter? Or Animal Farm? What about Fahrenheit 451 or Brave New World?
I don't think that Bradbury's world of book censorship will come to pass like we expect it to. Maybe people will just stop reading books because there aren't any pictures that move, and start watching movies that are mostly pretty lights and fireworks with no plots because there is nothing more dangerous than the opportunity to think. If human beings think, they come to two terrible and frightening realizations: they have the ability to create things and they can't always control what they create. Whether it be a paranoia turned reality or an entire world springing to life in the wake of a moving cursor, we fear what we create because it come from us and yet is not of us. It's bigger and greater.
Writers do not conquer this fear. We merely learn to embrace it and thrive on it.
Image via WikipediaI would let Kanye finish, but for the sake of future generations I have decided to drown him out with Florence and the Machine.
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