just a couple things...

I do not believe that every book is interesting. But most certainly everyone should be interested by books. Our minds are such a deep unattainable place. We have no idea how they work or what goes on inside of them, but I truly believe that books can entirely enhance someone’s life. The four years in which I quite literally, lived, breathed, slept and ate books were some of the best of my life. I look back on them with more than sentimentality. I still get hassled by my friends and called weird but I could care less, I wouldn’t trade them for the world. I was being one hundred percent myself. At the same time however, it is not possible to live that way anymore and be entirely happy. The world is moving at a different pace, people appreciate different things, have different likes and dislikes. I wish that everyone could appreciate a good book, or for that matter even a good conversation. I feel as though I am constantly dumbing myself down even to talk to my best of friends. My interests include philosophy, literature and general speculation about the world around us. However people simply don’t have the attention span for conversations like that. I have not met someone who has satisfied me conversationally in years, if ever. The world is changing and unfortunately it is veering away from deep conversation, nature and literature. It is still possible to live as a purist, loving the earth and the stories generated and regenerated, passed down from culture to culture, person to person, but living that way means living alone, or not being entirely accepted by the world around you. It takes a strong person to do that, and I don’t think there are many out there. Those who are considered crazy or old fashioned. Even the course load for this class involves blogging. I enjoy putting a pen to paper and putting my thoughts on the page, seeing my own hand writing attached to my own thoughts. I know that you would argue that when the pen came out it was a new form of technology, but with every new form of technology we are putting less and less of ourselves into our convictions. When I look at what I just wrote it is only my words, it is not my writing, or the fullest expression of myself. I find it much less rewarding. It is only one element of me instead of multiple. I am a college freshman and I can’t even write the ABC’s in cursive. It surprises me that you promote the use of toys such as the Ipad or the use of blogs instead of journals. Sure, you can look up words you don’t know with one touch. But whatever happened to turning the pages of a donated library book, the smell that only accumulates after years of use, the creak of the pages as the seam weakens. Whatever happened to looking up the words you don’t know in a dictionary, or for that matter asking a friend or mentor what they mean. Instead of having conversations with people about their thoughts on novels, themes or characters we Google the book for generic answers. Literature is becoming less and less intriguing because it is becoming less and less of a social Endeavour. We don’t get together to drink tea and discuss books, or anything for that matter, we go out to a movie or to a bar. The obvious rebuttal would be that we still can get together and drink tea and read books. But that becomes a lifelong quest that requires complete devotion, there are not many people who enjoy those things anymore and doing them alone simply doesn’t cut it. Books have become boring because they are not the same as they used to be, reading a book does not enhance social situations with the general population. In fact in many ways it makes you socially awkward it puts you above the general population; the conversations which we have in class, as interesting or as entertaining as they are, are half of what they could be. Books are addicting, “original” thought is addicting, but in this day and age they won’t take you far I feel like. I would appreciate to hear your thoughts on this because it is something that troubles me on a regular basis. I don’t voice my opinions in class often and I am rather quiet because I feel like people often times don’t have a genuine interest in the conversations and I don’t want to waste my breath. This class has been great and I have learned a lot from it, it also brought me back to one of the best, most free times in my life. However at the end of the day I find it slightly depressing as well. Supposedly fifty percent of the American population is depressed, and there is a fifty percent divorce rate. I believe that that is because we rely on all of these false means of communication and the media and all of these silly gadgets. We allow them to could our judgment and deter from who we really, truly are at the core. I am not saying I am not guilty of this. I own a TV and a laptop and watch stupid TV shows and buy movie tickets and DVD’s instead of books, but I feel as though that is the only way to integrate myself into this society, and once you start all of that it is addicting.