My hat is off to those people who can write books of creatively written stories that take you to another place and time, or those who can portray real events in people's lives in such a way that they are enjoyable to read and learn from. Many times as I have been reading a good book I have found myself wanting the book not to end and wishing that the author had written more books like this one.
One such author is C.S. Lewis. I have read many of his books and each time I get to the end of one of his books, I am sad that there is not another page to turn or another book of his waiting to be read. I like his books because they are intelligent, witty and always have something to teach me that I didn't know before I read it. Unlike some of today's fiction, his books have intrinsic value to the reader. In other words, he was not writing merely to occupy the reader's time with an interesting story, but there seems to be a higher purpose in the book which the reader may or may not discover.
I have read many moralizing books that attempt to tell a story while at the same time telling you what you are supposed to think and learn from it. Books or movies that use this format are about as appealing as cold mashed potatoes. On the other hand, I love to read books that allow me to discover things about the story that were not actually told to me. Like being given a good piece of meat to chew on, it's something you can sink your teeth into; something your mind can ponder. There are too many books that have nothing in them but the surface story line, like a soap opera. They are merely a string of events, one leading to another in an endless succession of trauma and escape, with no real or thought-provoking dialog, characters or situations.
As I picked up another 'best-seller' the other day, the thought occurred to me that the book sounded exactly like I was reading a screen-play for a movie. It was not really literature, but a movie on paper. There was little time spent developing the background or characters. There was a lot of childish, petty dialog and some loosely drawn descriptions of clothing, but not so much that you might be able to learn anything from it, or have anything to think about. In fact, there seemed to be a significant lack of thought in everything. The story rambled as thought it were being invented on the spot, by a five-year-old child and the characters had anything but character.
If this had been a book that I picked up from the used book store and not a best-seller, I might not have been so surprised. But if that book is a best-seller, then we are in trouble. I say trouble because I think it is trouble when such a large portion of our population is consuming such large amounts of mental trash. But it's a little bit like the guy who tried to sue McDonald's for serving food that caused him to be obese and unhealthy. He had the choice to eat or not to eat, but he wanted someone else to be responsible.
We have the choice to consume or not to consume anything, whether it is food, entertainment, news or anything. We can be like the man at McDonald's and say that it was their fault for serving bad food, or we can take responsibility for our choices, in spite of the convenience of having the poorest quality if goods served microwave fresh, day and night and in your face. As with the body, so with the mind: 'garbage in, garbage out'. 'Garbage out' will never change by itself. It is always the result of the initial choice of 'garbage in'. So, we can either get used to garbage, or we can put the garbage where it belongs and start over. Is there really any other choice?
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