Books, Libraries and Tales of Tragedy

Are we heading towards a bookless age?

Some of you have heard of one of the more tragic events of history: the destruction of the great library of Alexandria around 390AD. Real deal bibliophiles can still lose sleep over that episode! The truth is, however, that there is some uncertainty as to what exactly had happened there. It did seem to have had a few fires over the centuries, but whether barbarians or later Muslims wilfully sought to destroy it or not is now a moot point.

But clearly in the past half century or so things have changed big time, with plenty of new developments now competing for the time and attention of folks, be it film, television, the internet and other new aspects of entertainment and amusement. And we can now even read books electronically. So, are actual libraries and actual books going the way of the dinosaur? Time will tell I guess.

There would however still be plenty of bibliophiles around who still love to hold actual books in their hands, who love to smell the ink of a new book, and who love to show love and affection for hardbacks and paperbacks. Some even love to highlight and/or underline passages in a book (a sacrilegious act, according to some book purists!).

Sorry, but some of us are just old school! That reminds me of two of my fav quotes about books. Winston Churchill, in Thoughts and Adventures (1932), said this:

“What shall I do with all my books?” was the question; and the answer, “Read them,” sobered the questioner. But, if you cannot read them, at any rate handle and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.

And Mortimer Adler wrote this in How to Read a Book (1940):

When you buy a book, you establish a property right in it, just as you do in clothes or furniture when you buy and pay for them. But the act of purchase is actually only the prelude to possession in the case of a book. Full ownership of a book only comes when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it — which comes to the same thing — is by writing in it. Why is marking a book indispensable to reading it? First, it keeps you awake — not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thinks. Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author. Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to be willing to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.

My tale of woe

I have my own personal story of heartache and pain because of some more libraries being abandoned, if not destroyed. Way back in the early 80s I worked as a missionary in Holland. After doing a course there as a student, I went on staff for the next four and a half years. I started in 1979 at a rural YWAM base – Heidebeek, for those in the know. As a staffer there I worked as a librarian and researcher.

It was always a challenge to get some spare funding to add more volumes to the growing library. It had theology and missions and biographies and all that, along with fiction for those interested in that sort of reading. Both staff and students made regular use of our library.

I was always keen to get in ever more useful volumes. At one point a visiting missiologist looked around our library and said it had one of the best collections of missions’ books that he had seen in Europe – at least in English. So we were proud of that.

Before proceeding, let me remind you of some recent history. Back in those days there was no internet, etc. Personal computers were just starting to become available back then. And in those days communication was quite slow. Unless you were rich and wanted to make long-distance phone calls, you were basically stuck with waiting at least a week to get an aerogram from loved ones back home. So if you were a young American or Aussie doing short-term missions overseas, you were rather limited in terms of what to do with your free time.

While some staff might have had TVs, students did not, so if you did not know the language of the country you were living in, going to a well-stocked library with many English-language books was your main go-to place for some diversions or amusements.

My story continues: around 1982, I – along with my newly acquired wife! – moved into Amsterdam with YWAM to set up a library there. Being a book-lover, it was a great joy to build up a library from scratch. Again, money for the library was quite low down on the YWAM budget priority list. I managed to find a nearby room to rent next to our main YWAM property, and I got one staffer who was a carpenter to build me a bunch of bookshelves.

There were bookstores that YWAM had at both bases, so that was one place to get some new titles. And in Amsterdam there were a number of shops that sold books in English – be they new or second-hand bookstores. And sometimes YWAMers would donate unwanted volumes.

So over the next few years I slowly but surely managed to build up a nice little library, and staff and students could come over and check out books. Then my wife and I left in 1984 and returned to the US where I finished a BA, got my MA, and then we moved to Australia.

Fast forward some 30 years or so: I returned to Holland for a visit and to do a bit of teaching there. Needless to say, one of the first things I did was to check out both libraries. I was quite saddened to see that both had been moved to smaller rooms, and both had now largely fallen into disuse if not disrepair. It was a bit of a blow to see that. All those years of hard but joyous work, seemingly in vain!

So what changed? Well, the obvious: once computers and internet and smart phones and so on came on the scene, everything changed quite a lot. Young folks no longer needed the libraries and the books as a main source of entertainment and amusement – they just spent their spare time living online.

Sure, some were still reading, but if so, it was often on a Kindle or on their smartphones. An actual physical library with actual physical books no longer seemed to appeal to most folks. The rural YWAM library was now in a much smaller room, and some general use computers were set up for students. About the only time I saw folks in there was when they were using the computers, and not looking at books.

The same in Amsterdam: my library was now in an out of the way part of the base, all in a bit of a shambles, Again, it brought a bit of grief to me to see this. But times do change. If you are a young person in a strange country, why would you not want to keep in touch with family, friends and what is happening in the world and be entertained via your laptops or iPads or streaming services or podcasts or smartphones? Who needs to visit some dusty old library when the whole world – including all its amusements and diversions – is now at your electronic fingertips?

Sure, my own cautionary tale may well not reflect what is happening the world over. Libraries still exist. Bookshops still exist. Actual books still exist. And booklovers still exist.

But – and this is a big concern that many of us have – it is hoped that some of the dark themes found in certain dystopian novels do not eventuate. You know the ones I am referring to: novels such as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953), or Brave New World published three decades earlier by Aldous Huxley.

Today it may not be some rogue state or tyrannical regime that has our books being burned and libraries being torn down. Instead, we may just be ‘amusing ourselves to death’ as Neil Postman warned about. I have written about, and quoted from, his very important and now classic 1985 book before.

Let me conclude here by doing so once again. In the volume Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Postman said this:

What Huxley teaches is that in the age of advanced technology, spiritual devastation is more likely to come from an enemy with a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In the Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother does not watch us, by his choice. We watch him, by ours. There is no need for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk; a culture-death is a clear possibility. (pp. 155-156)

And this sobering remark bears repeating – and emphasising:

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.

 

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right. (xix-xx)

I hope it does not get to this place, but we clearly seem to be heading in that direction. Let it be said that I for one will keep reading – and keep reading actual books, and keep treasuring bookshops and libraries. Here I stand, I can do no other!

[2006 words]