We adore books. Great big bookcases, filled with words, have a special place in the house. There's excitement there, and awesome life-changing power, and beauty, and art, and knowledge (which is art).
Writing is one of the most prized parts of civilisation, maybe even the key to its existence. Writing has been treasured as holy, given authority to direct our lives, seen to portray God's voice, seen to subvert/disprove God's being, and valued as describing the universe. Writing has been dear to human hearts for millennia, it has been the sign of decency, the sign of education, the sign of humanity, indeed, as valued as humanity. It has been said, "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings." - Heinrich Heine.
I've seen TV's in a car. I've seen CD racks. But I have never seen a bookcase in a car.
Is this an added benefit to the oil/car companies: a book-free zone for our de-education (deaducation?).
Cars are where books aren't welcome.
Reading in a car gives me hideous motion sickness.
ReplyDeleteAnd certainly while reading is filled with excitement, and awesome life-changing power, and beauty, and art, and knowledge, its also anti-social.
In my experience if one is in a car, one must be either driving, which would make reading inadvisable at best, or with at least one other person.
If I was driving along and my passenger whipped out 120 days of Sodom and began ignoring me, I would tell him to give me some beats on my pimping stereo or I would pop a cap in his ass.
In fact I have seen a bookcase in a car on an episode of MTV Cribs, in the possesion of their chosen media figure, Mzzz Whore or somesuch ghastly cognomen.
I recall thinking it seemed a rather silly thing to have in a car at the time.
They do, of course, have them on planes and trains. The thought of a library on a plane worries me though. I can't imagine how you return the book after three weeks...
I think you have tried to identify a principle where there was merely pragmatism.
You may be right, but it's certainly a cultural construct to not think about reading in cars. There are plenty of people who spend way more time in cars than I who would have time for reading in them (in traffic? on long journeys with kids?) and don't.
ReplyDeleteI just thought it was a weird thought. :)