"If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things-praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts-not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."
I would propose that World Falling Apart is the most important time to be reading great books. That reading does not stay in your head, it shapes the reality you see. And that might be its most important purpose.
It ties in with @thinkingwest's essay on why Gen Z needs to study history.
I would also add that I read Koestler's The Call-girls last year & it was just like reading what is happening now. It had a great number of similarities to WEF and Davis. Another soothsayer.
This really resonated with me, especially right now. I think we underestimate how medicinal reading can be. Not as escape, but as a way to steady ourselves. To remember what’s true, what’s human, what endures.
And for my people, for African Americans, reading has never just been a pastime. It has always been an act of resistance. There is a reason it was once illegal for enslaved people to learn to read. Literacy meant access to ideas, to self definition, to freedom. It meant the ability to question, to imagine, to organize. To not be controlled. That thread carries forward.
I recently started reading 1984 with my girls. What stands out is not just surveillance, but the control of language, information, and ultimately thought. If you can limit what people read, you can limit what they can even conceive of. Books become dangerous because they open doors. They expand what is possible. And that’s what reading still does. It stretches empathy. It sharpens thinking. It reminds us that there are other ways to see, to be, to live. It keeps something alive in us that the world can’t easily flatten or rush past.
So I don’t experience reading as stepping away from the world. I experience it as preparing to meet it more fully.
Curious how others hold this…Do you experience reading as escape, or as something that strengthens your ability to think, feel, and respond to the world around you?
Very well written! And I’m in agreement that reading - as it pertains to the great books at least - is not escapism but a means of sharpening to the mind to see reality more clearly
Chantel, am wondering if you have encountered Junius Johnson's classics studies? To your question, I experience reading as a life mandate, a skill that should not be lost. And every time I put minutes, then hours into it, I come out fulfilled and content that I did not only what I should have done, but bettered in countless ways. The time was more than well spent.
across Johnson's work. I will check him out! Love the reminder that minutes matter and add up to real things. In my current season, I have more minutes than elongated hours. I am learning to be OK with it.
Hi! This is highly interesting, I would love to get in touch if you would like, because I have actually felt a very similar call to develop a kind of private master of Western Literature and Philosophy, starting from the inspiration of the Inklings, with an emphasis on the role of beauty and sacramental imagination, to arrive at Catholic/Christian mysticism; at the same time helping people to apply what they learn to their lives. Here is a better and more thorough explanation: https://substack.com/home/post/p-193453834 . Perhaps it could be nice to exchange ideas and help each other?
"If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things-praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts-not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds."
- From C. S. Lewis' "On Living in an Atomic Age"
Perfect quote! Sums up the entire article haha
I would propose that World Falling Apart is the most important time to be reading great books. That reading does not stay in your head, it shapes the reality you see. And that might be its most important purpose.
I agree! To paraphrase Augustine - if we lead good lives, then so too shall the times be good
It ties in with @thinkingwest's essay on why Gen Z needs to study history.
I would also add that I read Koestler's The Call-girls last year & it was just like reading what is happening now. It had a great number of similarities to WEF and Davis. Another soothsayer.
I’ll have to keep that Koestler read on my mind! Sounds like an interesting book
This really resonated with me, especially right now. I think we underestimate how medicinal reading can be. Not as escape, but as a way to steady ourselves. To remember what’s true, what’s human, what endures.
And for my people, for African Americans, reading has never just been a pastime. It has always been an act of resistance. There is a reason it was once illegal for enslaved people to learn to read. Literacy meant access to ideas, to self definition, to freedom. It meant the ability to question, to imagine, to organize. To not be controlled. That thread carries forward.
I recently started reading 1984 with my girls. What stands out is not just surveillance, but the control of language, information, and ultimately thought. If you can limit what people read, you can limit what they can even conceive of. Books become dangerous because they open doors. They expand what is possible. And that’s what reading still does. It stretches empathy. It sharpens thinking. It reminds us that there are other ways to see, to be, to live. It keeps something alive in us that the world can’t easily flatten or rush past.
So I don’t experience reading as stepping away from the world. I experience it as preparing to meet it more fully.
Curious how others hold this…Do you experience reading as escape, or as something that strengthens your ability to think, feel, and respond to the world around you?
Very well written! And I’m in agreement that reading - as it pertains to the great books at least - is not escapism but a means of sharpening to the mind to see reality more clearly
Chantel, am wondering if you have encountered Junius Johnson's classics studies? To your question, I experience reading as a life mandate, a skill that should not be lost. And every time I put minutes, then hours into it, I come out fulfilled and content that I did not only what I should have done, but bettered in countless ways. The time was more than well spent.
Helen, I haven't run
across Johnson's work. I will check him out! Love the reminder that minutes matter and add up to real things. In my current season, I have more minutes than elongated hours. I am learning to be OK with it.
That is such a great piece by C. S. Lewis and it deserves to be better known. Likewise his “On Living in an Atomic Age” is almost prophetic in its applicability to our current times. (https://fsmandfsmwo.blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/cslewis-living-in-an-atomic-age.pdf)
Love this piece too! 🙌
You are so very correct
Hi! This is highly interesting, I would love to get in touch if you would like, because I have actually felt a very similar call to develop a kind of private master of Western Literature and Philosophy, starting from the inspiration of the Inklings, with an emphasis on the role of beauty and sacramental imagination, to arrive at Catholic/Christian mysticism; at the same time helping people to apply what they learn to their lives. Here is a better and more thorough explanation: https://substack.com/home/post/p-193453834 . Perhaps it could be nice to exchange ideas and help each other?
Love your mission! Feel free to shoot me a DM
Wonderful article and excellent accompanying photos. Where did you ever get them? Thanks for the piece.