Post by donq on Aug 22, 2014 13:22:13 GMT
First of all, let me make clear that I used the word “you” in the literary sense. It includes me, too. I’m also the ones who asking this question. Beside, if I use pronoun “we” it might include you without your permission.
I recall that two decades ago there was a book called, “How to Read a Person Like a Book” but I didn’t buy it (literally and figuratively.)
What I really want to ask is “Can you read a book and then know about the person who wrote it?”
I’ve been curious about this question for a very long time. Besides, my long time career have had something to do about it, too. For example, I knew many professional (fiction) writers, some of them even were my friends. And that was why I knew that what they wrote had nothing to do with who they really were at all, even their books would be very very good.
It suffices to say that you might not have problem to read between the lines. You always get what the writer meant , and/or even what they didn’t write in their books. But that makes you really know them?
Some writers (novel and song writers) even gave excuse to themselves in advance, “I’m not my book. Do not mistake me for what I wrote. It’s irrelevant.” Maybe it’s true. Any writer has his/her free will to create something “beyond” himself/herself as that the way an creative art is. They can create significant things from nothing. What they wrote could be so meaningful, I never doubt that.
But when it comes to spiritual writing, I’m curious, could that be true?
My point is it’s so easy nowadays to imitate/absorb the other’s idea to be of oneself without even knowing it. Let me give you an example, there are many bestselling books about spiritual quotations. Is it necessary that the writer, nay, the compiler/collector of this kind of book had to require certain understand about spirituality before he/she could find and collected some really good stuff on spiritual quotations? Or it’s not necessary at all? (as the book will be benefit for the readers anyway.)
Let’s narrow it down a bit. When you read something on the internet, say, a personal profile on facebook, that will help you to “really” know that person? Because in so many cases, they are so good written profiles, indeed.
But my point is how do you know he/she is not plagiarist?
And as one of my dear friends wrote on another thread “I really feel sorry for young people today who rarely read, or only do so when forced to as part of their studies. They write as they text, and I think what a shame.”
That was so true! From time to time, I read the news about our young people who had this problem. The really met each other after chatting together for a short period of time via social media on the internet. And in many cases, it ended with the sad stories. Anyway, this could mean what they wrote would be so good somehow? It was good until one of them believed (or projected) that he/she found his/her soul mate. Or it was just that they (one or both of them) were poor readers and could not really understand what he/she read?
As most of us here are already adult, I don’t think we would have this problem. But I still want to know if there’s any way to make our young people know about this? Not by forcing them to behave themselves in this kind of case (because I think it never worked) but by helping them to know how to “read between the lines” better? Then, how?
Or forcing them not to believe in anything they read is still the best motto (hence their best protections), in the real life situation?
