Yesterday, I wrote about the books in my life. It got me thinking about an aspect of information, the media (books, magazines, the internet, movies) that troubles me.
Let’s start with these two book covers. Note the difference? The one on the left is my precious first edition of Thurber’s, The Wonderful O - a book of immense imagination, up there with Seuss and Calvino. It was printed in the 60s. On the right, one of the many “bestsellers” on the shelves these days. The difference? Today, the author’s title is large - it IS the content, the book. Slowly through the years, we’ve become readers of authors not words. And it is getting worse. Let me tell you why.
All thoughts emit a throw of the die. Mallarme
I loved libraries when growing up. I’d spend hours just pulling out books here and there. I didn’t know Asimov from Bulgakov. I read the words. I was in Plato’s republic where we read for the sake of good art, not the celebrity factor, not the name.
But nowadays, it is all about reading this author, that author. I dream of a return where we assess the worth of a book just by what is written. Not the tainted heady haze and glow given because it was written by John Hancock.
I grew so much just through the synchronicity, the surprised discovery of books - allowing myself a wide breadth to discover. But today across the Gutenberg Galaxy, across all forms of media - we are spoonfed only stuff “they” - the algorithm puppet masters deem we are, would enjoy.
“As beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.” - Isidore Ducasse Lautreamont
I look at my Facebook feed - it’s full of Tom Petty this, NY Review of Books that. But I want to grow, curiosity is the food of man. I don’t want to be lulled into a soft pillow of things I know, admire. Nodding brings no growth. How will I ever learn and “be” if I don’t confront the “new”? How will our children ever become critical thinkers if they have so little opportunity to enter into and experience things outside their standard perceptual world?
Whose zooming who? Aretha Franklin
And that is the essential problem with media and it is a huge problem. We are creating a world where we are spoonfed through likes, whatever “hits” our ego and gives a dopamine zaps. The algorithms know the titles, the people, the authors - that’s all they know and so they feed us the titles - movies, news, opinions, music we are supposedly locked into.
Why don’t many of the “technocrat gurus” out there - Gates, the late Jobs, Jeff Bozo - why do they restrict their children from tech? It isn’t that they are afraid for their eyesight. No. It is because they know the value of breadth - a good liberal education (liberal in the old sense of the word).
The lack of discovery (my term) is rampant in academia which is now just so specialized, nobody sees the forest for their trees. It’s a terrible problem, we need more generalists, big picture people, leaders (if I may say so).
The lack of discovery isn’t just a problem of confirmation bias. It is a lack of engagement outside of the world of ourselves. We will choke without the fresh air of “the new”, the stimulating, the perplexing. We are curiosity formed creatures and our brains need this type of food.
Either you run the day or the day runs you. Jim Rohn
So I ask dear reader - get out there and allow chance to do its thing. It is the basis of biology and growth (mutation), it is the very soul of ultimately what we are, homo sapien, sapien - a wise being because we are alive in a world of wonder, unpredictable, delicious content. We will only grow if we put ourselves into the uncomfortable world of “the other”. Or how will we ever create another artist capable of writing a book like “The Wonderful O”?