Re :relative values, "crucial", openness, and speaking for one's child
Deb Lewis
***The questions I'd like to discuss are whether books are "crucial," and about
anonymity/misrepresentation, and speaking for one's child.
Just for the philosophical value, I would like to discuss those.***
Books are crucial for Dylan. They were not and are not "the one" crucial thing in life, but from the time he was very little, he loved books. He likes the feel of the paper, the weight of the book, the look of the text, the smell of the ink or the dust. <g> He is rarely without a book and an afternoon in a used bookstore is his idea of perfect. He reads online too but doesn't find it as pleasurable as sitting down (or walking around) with a book.
Books have never been anything like crucial to his dad.<g>
***anonymity/misrepresentation, and speaking for one's child.***
My grandmother wrote letters to relatives in Wales and Scotland from the point of view of her daughter, Eula. One of the relatives saved them and years later published them into a book. They are charming. Whether they accurately represented Eula's thoughts and actions, I can't say. Eula is dead, her mom and dad are dead, her siblings are dead and her only son is dead.
My grandmother was smart and talented but she did not listen easily to praise and I think she wrote from Eula's point of view be able to express herself without seeming to be seeking attention or glory.
She was also not sentimental or mushy. The stories weren't cutesy. They seem more a stylish accounting than creepy weirdness. And they weren't written to give credibility to her parenting or educational choices or to help other people raise little Welsh girls in Montana. They amused her and she thought others would be amused too.
***But dont books feed the imagination more than the DVD's , or any other
'visual' source ? ***
I think they feed the imagination in the sense that we can imagine ourselves wonderful. <g> In reading a book, the sound in one's head is one's own voice, no matter the character. I have long believed that reading makes the reader feel clever because the voice of that great book, that Pulitzer prize winning author, that super genius professor, is the reader's own voice! It feels like the imparting of greatness! I have heard great words in my head, therefore I am great! <g>
My book loving son reads every day. While he's reading he's thinking about the rhythm of the words, the description of scenery, the image created by the writer, or the image the writer missed creating. He reads thinking visually. Movies really engage him, when they're visually clever or beautiful or interesting because he's a visual thinker. He loves movies as much or more than books. And his idea of a good movie is not based on whether the acting is great or the story is moving but whether the camera angles and lighting were right for the scene and whether a shot worked or should have been edited. <g>
Even when he was very small he'd notice that labels on grocery items had changed. On items we didn't even purchase! He sees everything and not only does he see it the way it is but the way it was or could be or should be. <g>
***I have always found , for example, books more engrossing than
movies based on these books***
I think it's a mistake to expect a movie to be like a book. Movies are motion pictures. If they owe us one thing, it is to be visually pleasing or inspiring or thought provoking. I don't think their first obligation is to be just like "the" book. You want the book? Read the book.<g>
***books have always given me 'time' to think over,
form opinons, analyse.***
So, you're a slow thinker, eh?<g> I'm teasing. Some people's brains really aren't the best at sorting quickly changing images and making sense of them. Ten thousand years ago those people stayed in the hut, poking the fire, and the people who's brains could quickly work out the importance of frequently changing images were out hunting or fighting.
***I would like to think of books are a very powerful medium
despite the new age sources...thoughts ?***
New age sources? Thoughts projected from outer space? <g> I don't know if you've read many Victorian novels but some are horrid. <g> Everybody's always fainting or catching their death from standing in a draft or going insane from darkness or shadows or barking dogs. Not powerful unless you need some good laughter.
So, it depends on the book. And the reader. And what powerful means. Some people think Jane Austen is wonderful. I personally think one delicate ankle twisted on one muddy slope is enough for one lifetime.<g> My son *loves* H.P. Lovecraft for the language and I'm hoarse three paragraphs in. Grotesque, ensanguined morbidities and horrors of this and that. I like Stephen King and lots of people think he's a hack with all his folksy rambling, yessiree.
If you or your kids like books then get and read and keep lots of books and when you're not reading or stacking them into towers do lots of other stuff, watch movies, go for walks, skip stones, climb trees, cook, sew, build a birdhouse, dig a hole, fly a kite, swim, sing, dance! Books are just one part of life and learning, not all of it.
Deb Lewis
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
anonymity/misrepresentation, and speaking for one's child.
Just for the philosophical value, I would like to discuss those.***
Books are crucial for Dylan. They were not and are not "the one" crucial thing in life, but from the time he was very little, he loved books. He likes the feel of the paper, the weight of the book, the look of the text, the smell of the ink or the dust. <g> He is rarely without a book and an afternoon in a used bookstore is his idea of perfect. He reads online too but doesn't find it as pleasurable as sitting down (or walking around) with a book.
Books have never been anything like crucial to his dad.<g>
***anonymity/misrepresentation, and speaking for one's child.***
My grandmother wrote letters to relatives in Wales and Scotland from the point of view of her daughter, Eula. One of the relatives saved them and years later published them into a book. They are charming. Whether they accurately represented Eula's thoughts and actions, I can't say. Eula is dead, her mom and dad are dead, her siblings are dead and her only son is dead.
My grandmother was smart and talented but she did not listen easily to praise and I think she wrote from Eula's point of view be able to express herself without seeming to be seeking attention or glory.
She was also not sentimental or mushy. The stories weren't cutesy. They seem more a stylish accounting than creepy weirdness. And they weren't written to give credibility to her parenting or educational choices or to help other people raise little Welsh girls in Montana. They amused her and she thought others would be amused too.
***But dont books feed the imagination more than the DVD's , or any other
'visual' source ? ***
I think they feed the imagination in the sense that we can imagine ourselves wonderful. <g> In reading a book, the sound in one's head is one's own voice, no matter the character. I have long believed that reading makes the reader feel clever because the voice of that great book, that Pulitzer prize winning author, that super genius professor, is the reader's own voice! It feels like the imparting of greatness! I have heard great words in my head, therefore I am great! <g>
My book loving son reads every day. While he's reading he's thinking about the rhythm of the words, the description of scenery, the image created by the writer, or the image the writer missed creating. He reads thinking visually. Movies really engage him, when they're visually clever or beautiful or interesting because he's a visual thinker. He loves movies as much or more than books. And his idea of a good movie is not based on whether the acting is great or the story is moving but whether the camera angles and lighting were right for the scene and whether a shot worked or should have been edited. <g>
Even when he was very small he'd notice that labels on grocery items had changed. On items we didn't even purchase! He sees everything and not only does he see it the way it is but the way it was or could be or should be. <g>
***I have always found , for example, books more engrossing than
movies based on these books***
I think it's a mistake to expect a movie to be like a book. Movies are motion pictures. If they owe us one thing, it is to be visually pleasing or inspiring or thought provoking. I don't think their first obligation is to be just like "the" book. You want the book? Read the book.<g>
***books have always given me 'time' to think over,
form opinons, analyse.***
So, you're a slow thinker, eh?<g> I'm teasing. Some people's brains really aren't the best at sorting quickly changing images and making sense of them. Ten thousand years ago those people stayed in the hut, poking the fire, and the people who's brains could quickly work out the importance of frequently changing images were out hunting or fighting.
***I would like to think of books are a very powerful medium
despite the new age sources...thoughts ?***
New age sources? Thoughts projected from outer space? <g> I don't know if you've read many Victorian novels but some are horrid. <g> Everybody's always fainting or catching their death from standing in a draft or going insane from darkness or shadows or barking dogs. Not powerful unless you need some good laughter.
So, it depends on the book. And the reader. And what powerful means. Some people think Jane Austen is wonderful. I personally think one delicate ankle twisted on one muddy slope is enough for one lifetime.<g> My son *loves* H.P. Lovecraft for the language and I'm hoarse three paragraphs in. Grotesque, ensanguined morbidities and horrors of this and that. I like Stephen King and lots of people think he's a hack with all his folksy rambling, yessiree.
If you or your kids like books then get and read and keep lots of books and when you're not reading or stacking them into towers do lots of other stuff, watch movies, go for walks, skip stones, climb trees, cook, sew, build a birdhouse, dig a hole, fly a kite, swim, sing, dance! Books are just one part of life and learning, not all of it.
Deb Lewis
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]