Over the summer, I had the pleasure of reading a collection of short essays and stories written by Virginia Woolf. In her text ‘How Should One Read a Book?,’ she states: “it would not be in the least surprising to discover […] that the reason why we have […] erected some sort of shelter and society on the waste of the world, is nothing more but this: we have loved reading.”
In the context of a persisting reading crisis among young people, I found the sentiment of this quote to be particularly touching, and pertinent to discuss. Of course, it does not literally mean that peoples’ passion for scanning printed texts predates the creation of societies, but that the essence of this love, of which Woolf speaks, holds a crucial societal purpose. Namely, the role of our desires to engage with the imaginative ideas and constructions of others, and the manner in which this fosters our personal and — since individuals define and shape their communities more broadly — communal development.
Now more than ever, in a time when access to information is viewed as being at its most abundant, and technology at its most developed, we must read. This may seem counter-intuitive, but unfortunately our easy access to information has proven to be effective at making people take the effort needed to actually absorb knowledge for granted, since it can technically be accessed at any given moment. However, in doing so, it makes you dependent on its (at times dubiously reliable) knowledge, while stripping you of a personal capacity to think. For instance, social media limits our vocabulary and language — by being so reduced to snippets of text — while creating barriers of exclusion between those who do and do not understand its ever-mutating jargon.
I am not saying that we should never use the internet or engage with social media because it’s implicitly evil; that would be an unproductive exaggeration in the opposite direction. But I believe it is worth noting that its unbelievably quick pace and ever-changing content tends to make people analytically-passive.
Reading is the perfect counter-balance to young peoples’ (and, really, anyone’s) inevitable need to be online nowadays. While social media addictively confuses its users with hundreds of polarising, controversial and engaging talking points at once, without giving one the space to reasonably consider them, the inherently slower and more thoughtful pace of reading allows for this much-needed contemplation.
We have developed a bit of a shame around reading, with some seeing it as a stuck-up and elitist or purely-academic hobby. But besides the fact that it has a proven calming effect on the body and our general well-being, it improves our communication, which is fundamental to foster productive discussions. To discourage readings is an act to the detriment of our social imagination, and hence even our mental capacity to improve our societies.
Fiction is an excellent means of exercising our abilities for logical interpretation, pattern recognition, and critical thought. It is vital that we practice our own imaginations, and apply them to the daily experiences produced by our environments, so that our thoughts cannot be restricted and shaped so effectively by ill-intentioned others.
“May 2014 Books” by The Marmot is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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We must read: The importance of building a social imagination
Over the summer, I had the pleasure of reading a collection of short essays and stories written by Virginia Woolf. In her text ‘How Should One Read a Book?,’ she states: “it would not be in the least surprising to discover […] that the reason why we have […] erected some sort of shelter and society on the waste of the world, is nothing more but this: we have loved reading.”
In the context of a persisting reading crisis among young people, I found the sentiment of this quote to be particularly touching, and pertinent to discuss. Of course, it does not literally mean that peoples’ passion for scanning printed texts predates the creation of societies, but that the essence of this love, of which Woolf speaks, holds a crucial societal purpose. Namely, the role of our desires to engage with the imaginative ideas and constructions of others, and the manner in which this fosters our personal and — since individuals define and shape their communities more broadly — communal development.
Now more than ever, in a time when access to information is viewed as being at its most abundant, and technology at its most developed, we must read. This may seem counter-intuitive, but unfortunately our easy access to information has proven to be effective at making people take the effort needed to actually absorb knowledge for granted, since it can technically be accessed at any given moment. However, in doing so, it makes you dependent on its (at times dubiously reliable) knowledge, while stripping you of a personal capacity to think. For instance, social media limits our vocabulary and language — by being so reduced to snippets of text — while creating barriers of exclusion between those who do and do not understand its ever-mutating jargon.
I am not saying that we should never use the internet or engage with social media because it’s implicitly evil; that would be an unproductive exaggeration in the opposite direction. But I believe it is worth noting that its unbelievably quick pace and ever-changing content tends to make people analytically-passive.
Reading is the perfect counter-balance to young peoples’ (and, really, anyone’s) inevitable need to be online nowadays. While social media addictively confuses its users with hundreds of polarising, controversial and engaging talking points at once, without giving one the space to reasonably consider them, the inherently slower and more thoughtful pace of reading allows for this much-needed contemplation.
We have developed a bit of a shame around reading, with some seeing it as a stuck-up and elitist or purely-academic hobby. But besides the fact that it has a proven calming effect on the body and our general well-being, it improves our communication, which is fundamental to foster productive discussions. To discourage readings is an act to the detriment of our social imagination, and hence even our mental capacity to improve our societies.
France faces its students. When will its system face accountability?
Fiction is an excellent means of exercising our abilities for logical interpretation, pattern recognition, and critical thought. It is vital that we practice our own imaginations, and apply them to the daily experiences produced by our environments, so that our thoughts cannot be restricted and shaped so effectively by ill-intentioned others.
“May 2014 Books” by The Marmot is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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