What would the world, in a thousand years from now, know about the present and the past if all they had to go on was from was your house and personal library? A hypothetical question perhaps, but just suppose that a great apocalypse happened, and all knowledge was lost. The world goes through another dark age, and then conditions become just so to spark a renaissance, resulting in countless scholars involved in a desperate search for ancient knowledge; scholars just like Gemistus Pletho, Leonardo Bruni, and Petrarch. These renaissance scholars scour ruins and search through the rubble for the relics of our time, only to find garbage and trifles not worth mentioning. But one day, fateful archeologists uncover a secret; not unlike Howard Carter, who discovered Tut's tomb, or the archeologist who uncovered Troy, Heinrich Schliemann. This discovery is a house, your house, mostly intact and undamaged. Excitement in the academic community spreads to all parts of future society as huge secrets about the past wait to be told. What would your house and library reveal?
The future inquirers would search through your preserved home and bring to light pre-apocalyptical inventions like light bulbs, television, and rotating fans; treadmills, computers, and synthetic clothing; refrigerators, automobiles, and Phoenician blinds. All of these are mind shattering revelations that have the potential to turn a early renaissance economy into a full scale modern economy, capable of feeding billions. The only way to tap that potential, however, is to also be equipped with the philosophy behind the inventions. After all, what can one do to make a car if they don't know what an assembly line is? How could millions of cars be manufactured when war is the constant condition and no protection from foreign invasion and internal tumult exists? If everyone in 3000 AD are under oppressive monarchies, then what are the incentives to produce cars when all they make is the property of the king? Can you see how useless our inventions would be on a grand scale if our libraries were not included with them? It would be like the saying: "give a man a fish and he will be hungry the next day. Teach a man to fish and he will be fed forever."
So, what would your library unveil? What would it teach? How would it be a benefit to future generations? How will it not only be of historical significance, but also of spiritual, temporal, philosophical, moral, theoretical, empirical, rational, biological, artful, scientifical, theological, legal, economical, geographical, mathematical, astronomical, importance? If you are looking through your library (if you even have one), and are starting to feel proud that you own a large selection of classics from many of the different sciences, than good. You would be the future founder of an empire of light and knowledge. But If you are looking through your library and all you see is teen fiction, trashy romance, abridged novels, and goofy picture books, then congratulations, you gave the future a rational for why there was an apocalypse.
If all that existed were these, it would give the future the impression that we were pagans believing in magic dragons as evidenced from our fiction, and adulterers as evidenced from our romance, and uneducated from our novels, and deathly drunk from our picture books. If all we had from greek culture was the pantheon and low-rate plays, we'd be likely to dismiss their entire culture, but those things, mixed with the philosophy, math, and science enhances our own understandings, and having both good writings and bad writings better reflect reality. Therefore, I'm not suggesting that you purge every last paperback novel you picked up from the airport bookshop from your library, these books obviously have value, but exclusively owning these kinds of books would not only reflect poorly on us from a futuristic standpoint, but bluntly, omitting the great classics is grounds for an apocalypse.
The future inquirers would search through your preserved home and bring to light pre-apocalyptical inventions like light bulbs, television, and rotating fans; treadmills, computers, and synthetic clothing; refrigerators, automobiles, and Phoenician blinds. All of these are mind shattering revelations that have the potential to turn a early renaissance economy into a full scale modern economy, capable of feeding billions. The only way to tap that potential, however, is to also be equipped with the philosophy behind the inventions. After all, what can one do to make a car if they don't know what an assembly line is? How could millions of cars be manufactured when war is the constant condition and no protection from foreign invasion and internal tumult exists? If everyone in 3000 AD are under oppressive monarchies, then what are the incentives to produce cars when all they make is the property of the king? Can you see how useless our inventions would be on a grand scale if our libraries were not included with them? It would be like the saying: "give a man a fish and he will be hungry the next day. Teach a man to fish and he will be fed forever."
So, what would your library unveil? What would it teach? How would it be a benefit to future generations? How will it not only be of historical significance, but also of spiritual, temporal, philosophical, moral, theoretical, empirical, rational, biological, artful, scientifical, theological, legal, economical, geographical, mathematical, astronomical, importance? If you are looking through your library (if you even have one), and are starting to feel proud that you own a large selection of classics from many of the different sciences, than good. You would be the future founder of an empire of light and knowledge. But If you are looking through your library and all you see is teen fiction, trashy romance, abridged novels, and goofy picture books, then congratulations, you gave the future a rational for why there was an apocalypse.
If all that existed were these, it would give the future the impression that we were pagans believing in magic dragons as evidenced from our fiction, and adulterers as evidenced from our romance, and uneducated from our novels, and deathly drunk from our picture books. If all we had from greek culture was the pantheon and low-rate plays, we'd be likely to dismiss their entire culture, but those things, mixed with the philosophy, math, and science enhances our own understandings, and having both good writings and bad writings better reflect reality. Therefore, I'm not suggesting that you purge every last paperback novel you picked up from the airport bookshop from your library, these books obviously have value, but exclusively owning these kinds of books would not only reflect poorly on us from a futuristic standpoint, but bluntly, omitting the great classics is grounds for an apocalypse.
Very interesting. But what about books by authors like Louis L'amour? I think some people would consider them classics and others would not. How can you tell in that grey area?
ReplyDeleteAlso, should I really filter my library based on what some unborn archeologists might think of it, or on what I am interested in reading?
Thank you for your question, I'm glad my posts are helping you think and ask good questions. Although many people take different stances on that question, I would personally say that any book that not only has entertainment value, but is also rich in knowledge, is a book I would include in my library. L'amour is definitely an author I would include in my list of favorite all-time authors. If you haven't already read my other post "Autodidacticism: The Walking Drum," then I would highly recommend it because it relies heavily upon "The Walking Drum" which L'amour wrote.
DeleteAlso, I think that you should take in as many factors as you can when you decide what you should read. I think you should definitely follow your interests, but you should also take future generations into account. Other factors you might consider when you collect your own books is personal achievement, economical advantages, and enlightenment.
Delete