DL's books have never interested me but her speech contains many moving examples of those hungry for literature. I love this passage from her speech:
Ask any modern storyteller and they will say there is always a moment when they are touched with fire, with what we like to call inspiration, and this goes back and back to the beginning of our race, to fire and ice and the great winds that shaped us and our world.
However this next passage strikes me shallow:
"How will our lives, our way of thinking, be changed by the internet, which has seduced a whole generation with its inanities so that even quite reasonable people will confess that, once they are hooked, it is hard to cut free, and they may find a whole day has passed in blogging etc?"
Inanities? Of course, few of us have the gifts (and time and resources) to produce nobel-prize winning literature. So we should be quiet and just wait around for those that do?
Here I am talking about books never written, writers who could not make it because the publishers are not there. Voices unheard. It is not possible to estimate this great waste of talent, of potential. But even before that stage of a book's creation which demands a publisher, an advance, encouragement, there is something else lacking.
And this to me is gift & curse of low-cost publishing. Of those voices unheard, a few will put Shakespeare in the shade. But the majority will be "inane".
DL seems to be unable to confront the fundamental paradox at the heart of her wish. Accessibility means that the foolish and wisdom are accessible.
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2 comments:
fascinating blog matt... couldn't agree with you more that "Accessibility means that the foolish and wisdom are accessible"
I have found that even though internet has meant a lot of globalisation (which has some negative aspects, eg. english is the dominant language on the internet and people having to devote time to learning that and adapting to that might loose some of their own culture in the process) there are numerous numerous benefits... for example, i am now able to connect with people, groups and information that i would have *never never never* found and interacted with had it not been for the internet... as with anything... change is the only thing for certain, and if we resist rather than embrace and shape, we become victims and not people who grow as a result of the change.
would be interesting to apply the theory of change and adaptation to some recent controversial topics... such as cloning and nuclear power...
(if you are reading this in 2020+, no it was not an "obvious decision" at the time to go forwards... some resisted, some delayed and some killed of some ideas, but only temporarily, aren't we lucky that we are in 2020, we have cloning and widespread nuclear power, and all is well :-)
Hey Matt,
I did a similar post, although you got in first!
See http://bradhinton.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/on-the-internet-and-books/
Regards,
Brad
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