Boeke maak nuwe (of ou) wêrelde oop, help ons sin maak van wat om ons aangaan en gee vir ons ‘n insae in emosies en gebeurtenisse wat ons dalk nog nie self ervaar het nie (of nooit sal ervaar nie). So lei dit tot groter begrip vir ons medemens, sien ons nuwe moontlikhede beter raak en vergroot ons wêreldbeskouing en vermeerder ons lewenskeuses. Dit lei weer daartoe dat ons bydrae tot ons gemeenskappe op verskeie vlakke meer effektief en meer betekenisvol kan wees.
Ek kan die waarde van letterkunde nie beter stel as C S Lewis nie. Verskeie kurrikulumverskaffers is beskikbaar om die student (jonk en oud, kind of ouer) te lei deur die wye veld van die Groot Gesprek (Great Conversation) – sien ‘n paar skakels hieronder. Die term “Groot Gesprek” dui op die heen en weer bespreking, ondersteuning en weerlegging van gedagtes en idees, soos uitgedruk deur skrywers oor die eeue, wat aansluit by of kommentaar lewer op mekaar se werke en die sake van hul dag.
In “An Experiment in Criticism”, C.S. Lewis wrote: “Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully realise the enormous extension of our being which we owe to authors,” he says. “We realise it best when we talk with an unliterary friend. He may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented.”
In his essay, “On the reading of old Books”, C.S. Lewis wrote: “…since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light. Often it cannot be fully understood with out the knowledge of a good many other modern books. If you join at eleven o’clock a conversation which began at eight you will often not see the real bearing of what is said. Remarks which seem to you very ordinary will produce laughter or irritation and you will not see why—the reason, of course, being that the earlier stages of the conversation have given them a special point. In the same way sentences in a modern book which look quite ordinary may be directed “at” some other book; in this way you may be led to accept what you would have indignantly rejected if you knew its real significance. The only safety is to have a standard of plain, central Christianity (“mere Christianity” as Baxter called it) which puts the controversies of the moment in their proper perspective. Such a standard can be acquired only from the old books. It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.” [C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock – On the reading of old books (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970), pp. 200-201.]
Nuutste Opmerkings