On Books — Their Importance . . . Or Not.
From “Goodbye to All That,” by Steve Wasserman www.cjr.org/cover_story/goodbye_to_all_that_1.php
– on troubling changes in the culture of literacy:
The “most troubling crisis is the sea change in the culture of literacy itself, the degree to which our overwhelmingly fast and visually furious culture renders serious reading increasingly irrelevant, hollowing out the habits of attention indispensable for absorbing long-form narrative and the following of sustained argument.”
And literate folk generally will agree with Wasserman that the culture of literacy is crucial to the citizens’ exercise of cogent and coherent civic and political life and the health of society.
Another comment by contrast, from Forty Acres and A Goat, by Will D. Campbell, about himself: (p. 3)
“At first the consolidated country high school seemed big to him. He once counted the books in the library and there were almost two hundred. He wondered how it would be to know everything in all those books. Then one day one of the teachers drew a big circle on the blackboard. She made a tiny dot in the circle. She told them the circle was the world and that if they knew everything in every book in every library in the world, the little dot was how much they would know. He questioned how important books were after that.”
His questioning did not keep him from writing books.
His writing books did not sunder his modesty and humility about the limitations of books and learning — the kinds of limitations that divide people rather than bring them together. Many “Bible-believing Baptists” have shared with other folk the conviction that that Bible was enough. It is interesting, though, how the Bible has prompted so much writing of books.
There is a point worth exploring, one relevant to Wasserman’s concerns, and one he acknowledged in his article. It is that the “print” media have great power. But limited power. Most people do not read books. Or newspapers — certainly not as in times past. “Reading” on the Internet has grown, but it is not the same “literacy” of concern. And all print media influences touch people indirectly and at a distance, though no less certainly.
What is in contention is whether those influences are what we want and need. The quick conclusion? Usage, markets, and the influence of the “democraweb” will provide such diversity of opinion that we may, “have the world” and at yet have little of clear value.
In a new twist on old news, this time from the UK (The Times [London], January 14; and poorly covered or characterized in the American mass media) Tara Brabazon, a British professor (U. of Brighton), weighed in on the dangers of relying too much on Web resources such as Google (”White bread for the mind;” “Google is filling, but it does not necessarily offer nutritional content.”) and Wikipedia. What most media commentators missed was her assertion that students must be taught to distinguish between reliable and less reliable sources on the Internet. Students should learn to work with the library, and books, and the Web, and to be able to discern between sources and make reliable interpretations of them. And that takes me back to the point of value: yes, there are many non-negotiable cultural foundations that should be familiar to students — the stuff of an adequate liberal arts curriculum, for example. Yet the culture always evolves, and much that is new gets attention. What persists because of its value does so because enough people make it part of their lives or recognize it as relevant to start with.
Consider this: the World Wide Web is a triumph of ephemerae. And trivia – collected, or deposited, as by travellers exchanging information and opinion at a rest stop or roadway inn. Most of what you find there won’t last. Interestingly though, for now, the Web provides (increasingly by the day, and from reliable sources) unparalleled access to much that has long been of enduring value in world cultural traditions. It is a tool, or set of tools, to be approached and used wisely, as one would approach a library, whether of 200 volumes like the one in Will Campbell’s high school, or any other.