Books, Real Life, and what you do with it

Ashley brought up some good points about reading books and traveling. She had an excellent analogy which compared television viewing to traveling in a car (lazy non-interactive, cushy experiences) while reading a book would be more like traveling in a motorcycle where you can FEEL the wind TOUCH the ground if you please. She ultimately argued we needed a mixture of both reading and traveling. Read her blog here.

I think it's a good idea to read books and gain knowledge from each individual context and culture that it highlights, but ultimately we should be experiencing life and doing so in such a way that WE write the stories for the next generation. Much to Professor Sexson's chagrin, I am talking about non-fiction, but we can of course be creative and write fiction based on our own travels and relationships.

This is ultimately the difference between a tourist who travels and from someone who travels and learns from the places they go and the people they meet. By writing about what we know, we can become teachers and friends to a whole new generation of literature 110 students. It's one thing to become an English teacher and teach the same Shakespeare cannon that's been taught for centuries, but it's whole different ballgame if you become an author that expands on a genre or invents a new one. But wait, you say, aren't you just recycling the same literary plots if you try to create a new category of writing? Personally, I think its much more creative to put your personal touch to something as opposed to teaching it straight out of the box.

So go ahead and read your books and travel to those distant lands. But if you're not writing about it, you're passing up an enormous opportunity to leave your stamp on literary history and the hearts and minds of future generations.