-
I was reading a good book, one that I've had around for
a long time and has gained a bit of fame and credibility over
the years. As I read through it I thought, "will this piece
of writing survive the clattering teeth of time?" It could
be that sometime in the future men and women will no longer
pay this piece of writing any mind at all. It will be codified
in a huge database very few people tap into. And yet, the life
of this piece of writing has been with us for over one hundred
years. Without it, the level of culture and civilization would
be difficult to imagine. Therefore, one can say that whatever
occurs in the future, if they are a civilized lot, they will
need to produce work at this level or above. If they don't
then they will be, merely, barbarians who will survive through
time by force and terror.
Writing shows the way out of the problem of living in a world
with too much confusion, too much change, too much of everything.
Writing discriminates and slows down and makes the mind deliberate
and so shows the way to a civilized, cultured existence. And
it is only those cultures high in civilized value that values
writing and other arts. The barbaric periods in history despise
them. And they destroy everything for a dubious dance in the
eternal now. And it could just as well happen tomorrow as
yesterday.
A new medium, like the internet, is a liberator or acts as a
catalyst to new forms, new stimulations. And that means
that the element of fascination re-enters culture. We are ignorant
in front of what can be known, therefore we need to be inspired to
know beyond what we ever thought possible. New forms of communication
then and new ways to keep the mind folding back against the
impossible that seems to press inward all the time.
The greatest modern literary theme is the wonderful birth of
great, heroic machines and emaciated, backward, barbaric human
beings playing out in their shadows. We will be the people
and the culture the future must overcome. I hope not but
it is a theme.
David
Click here to send your comments
on this month's column.
|
||||