The War on Words

[dirtylibrarian]

Reading as democratic action, by Philip Pullman, author extrordinare.

Thanks arasay!

Comments

[arasay.livejournal.com]

I almost hope it brings Thomas Roche under his rock.

(This is a library listserv thing, so if you think it's referring to a friend of yours, it's not, unless he's a rightwingnut private school librarian, in which case it is.)

And that should read

[arasay.livejournal.com]

out from under his rock.

[aras-55555.livejournal.com]

Interesting article. I'd raise a bit of an issue with his grouping together communist organizations with religious organizations. I think there's a big difference in that communism or any sort of materialism usually relates man to other men, and sees man as its highest end, while religion has a relation to an 'other' outside 'everyday' reality. Of course, in many religions with a significant hierarchy there's usually a distance enforced between the lay person and the people in religious authority, with an emphasis on the past, and even in those events of the past there being only certain approved versions, and of those versions there being only one, usually simplistic, interpretation. But I think I would call those sorts of religious hierarchies perhaps 'secretly materialist' or 'ignorant of their own atheism' rather than say that militant atheism equates to a religion.

It's interesting that he calls reading fundamentally democratic, whereas I'd probably call it more fundamentally anarchic. Maybe it depends on what you look for, or the way that you see ;)

I like to refer to books as a sort of 'antidote to reality' :) Though, I guess the more accurate term would be 'antidote to the immediate world' :) I can only imagine what it must have been like in the past, in a small isolated town or even in a larger city, where perhaps other than the newspaper (which really offers mostly thumbnail sketches), reading books must have been like a huge shocking jump from the world of your personal circle. I think today with radio, movies, television and the internet we're sort of seduced into thinking that books are maybe a harder way of getting the same information, but I think there's a whole other level of content to books that isn't present in those other media which are geared more to the group than the individual. It's some quality that undercuts the hypocrisy of most idle talk and strengthens the individual spirit, possibly only bettered by a heartfelt discussion with another person :)

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks!