We Need Their Voices Now
Their words and Truth live on. Read.
We need critical thinking and smart voices to raise the level of the conversation, to inspire voices of dissent. (A rematch between The Dangerous Clown and The DangerousSomnambulist is not acceptable!!)
Ah, the importance of reading books.
The world constantly echoes the message: “The children must be taught the utmost importance and joy of reading books!”
New solutions are proposed, and new teaching methods. From where I sit, teaching by example is not how it's being done.
People love to virtue-signal their opposition to books being banned - but more people talk about reading books than are actually reading them.
The latest barrage of censorship in the grand land of the USA seems to reveal this country's racist and sexual issues. (Thank you librarians for standing up against the manufacture of censorship!)
23% of Americans haven't picked up a single book in the past year.
Various statistics do indicate that people spend around 3 hours a day on their smartphones — and an additional 2.5 watching TV.
Lots of articles, online, about people trying to cut back on “addiction” to their Smartphone Distraction Machines.
Critical Thinking sits emaciated, staring at the fake books that have become a popular decorative fixture in the home.
I primarily read fiction, but occasionally intersperse it with nonfiction. As in the four recent cases pictured in the stamps above.
Less than half of the adult American population now reads literature!
“The pursuit of truth, not of facts, is the business of fiction.” ― Oakley Hall
"All we know are the facts, ma'am."
— Sgt. Joe Friday
Americans like facts — that's why they watch CNN and MSNBC and Fox — and read the New York Times.
Official narratives to manufacture consent — and discredit dissent, opinions that fit these narratives, experts in their fields (especially military), censorship disguised as security, political party machinations hiding under the guise of debate, conspiracy theories, Hyperbole and platitudes, plain old lies and deceptions, conflicts of interest, essays written by AI — the neverending whole kitchen sink of "facts."
(Fact: Audiobooks are not “reading” — especially if you are doing anything else — and if you think they are then your oh-so-busy schedule has made you forget what reading is.)
I moved back to New York City almost 13 years ago and among my top reasons, along with walking, was to create time for reading.
The car culture of Vermont didn't help as you're always in a car to go anywhere, in my case the grocery store and laundry and work etc.
Now there are those long bus and subway rides, only occasionally disturbed by interesting individuals or views, or people whose drugs have worn off.
Read on!
ƃuıpɐǝɹ / reading \ ƃuıpɐǝɹ
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. . . . If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”— Stephen King
Read, Writer!. ƃuıpɐǝɹ / reading ƃuıpɐǝɹ (Head… | by aleXander hirka | SNAPSHOTS | Medium
ƃuıpɐǝɹ / reading ƃuıpɐǝɹ (Head Inside A Book)
And speaking of truths found in fiction, here is a short story from my life/art partner, Tammy.
Reading Remonda. They begged, wept, threatened, cajoled… | by Remington Write | Plan-B Vibe | Medium
They begged, wept, threatened, cajoled and bribed through the night but still, in the morning, Remonda was gone. Without her placid…
THANK YOU FOR READING.
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