A Hunger For Books
This place has its fair share of inanities - true.
However, I think it's worth reminding ourselves that, generally, we are all readers, interested in ideas, interested in knowledge. That puts us in a minority, and possibly a dwindling one at that.
Doris Lessing's acceptance speech for her Nobel Prize for Literature is a great hymn to reading and the power of books to transform lives. I think it's very inspiring. See what you think:
[URL=http://books.guardian.co.uk/nobelprize/story/0,,2224068,00.html]
A Hunger for Books - Doris Lessing.[/URL]
[QUOTE=corellion;1114632] I don't see her point beyond, as you said, that books inspire..[/QUOTE]
Maybe that is the point. Does there need to be more? [URL=http://www.booksforafrica.org/]Books inspire, books empower.[/URL] We (general we) do take if for granted, and don't realise the depth of ideas and information that's out there.
As for "claiming authority over starving people" and going to hell because we were born in a country with judicial rule and a stable economy - well if that's what you see in it, fair enough. Other than asking us to question how we live, I didn't get that from it at all.
I read this is bed this morning and nodded in agreement, especially with this part:
[B]Let us now jump to an apparently very different scene. We are in London, one of the big cities. There is a new writer. We cynically enquire: "Is she good-looking?" If this is a man: "Charismatic? Handsome?" We joke, but it is not a joke.[/B]
I think she made some important points about the internet also.
While there some pessimistic elements to the speech, I think it's important that those things be acknowledged rather than ignored and found it to be inspiring too.
Books [I]can[/I] end hunger. I think the reason that many children starve is that they are small and can not reach the table. If they had books, they could use them as booster seats, and the children would be able to reach the table and enjoy their food.
[QUOTE=tom9d;1114854]Books [I]can[/I] end hunger. I think the reason that many children starve is that they are small and can not reach the table. If they had books, they could use them as booster seats, and the children would be able to reach the table and enjoy their food.[/QUOTE]
<3
I don't understand these moral speeches. What should we do? What can we do? Is she just saying the following? Is that her point?[QUOTE]That poor girl trudging through the dust, dreaming of an education for her children, do we think that we are better than she is - we, stuffed full of food, our cupboards full of clothes, stifling in our superfluities?
I think it is that girl and the women who were talking about books and an education when they had not eaten for three days, that may yet define us.[/QUOTE]I doubt anyone would have the audacity to claim authority over people starving with barely enough water. But she offers no solution, just an observation that's been made time and time again. It's obvious giving money doesn't help, so what does?
It reads more like a sermon telling us all we're going to hell because we had the misfortune of being born and raised in developed society with stable economy and clear judicial rule. I don't see her point beyond, as you said, that books inspire. I'm not challenging her mind, I realise plenty of people are will assume I am, I just tip-to-toe don't see her point. And I'd like to be told.