“‘Why don’t you get your task, instead of playing with your playthings from morning till night? You are grown too old now to do nothing but play. It is high time you should learn to read and write, for you cannot be a child all your life, child; so go fetch your book and learn your task.’”
- Maria Edgeworth, Practical Education
“I must confess that I dedicate no inconsiderable portion of my time to other people’s thoughts. I dream away my life in others’ speculations. I love to lose myself in other men’s minds. When I am not walking, I am reading; I cannot sit and think. Books think for me.”
- Charles Lamb, Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading
The quote I chose from Edgeworth’s work describes a specific moment in time when a child comes to distinguish between the words play and task- that ‘play’ can have a more negative and negligent connotation and ‘task’ has a more responsible one. In this specific quote, the child’s task is reading. This is the first quote in Chapter II of Practical Education, which is mainly about teaching children to read and write. Taken out of context however, it raises a completely different question and thought process for me. Since when did reading become a task? Understandably, for those that have difficulty with written language, it may not be the most enjoyable activity available. However, how can it be a task to take yourself away from the real world and drink in the thoughts of others- placing yourself in a completely different world? I believe that fits more with the definition of play than task. I know, for me, the stress of college and schoolwork, as well as social drama or my job, can become overwhelming. One of my biggest forms of ‘play’ is to lose myself in a literary work. This idea coincides with Lamb’s opinion on reading. In the quote from Detached Thoughts on Books and Reading, Lamb discusses how often he loses himself in others’ thoughts in the form of works of literature. He words our shared opinions perfectly when he says “Books think for me”. It is incredibly enjoyable to pull yourself away from all your worries and stress and just enjoy a book. Allowing yourself to have another world built up around yourself and to put yourself in the shoes of the main character, enjoying their problems and dilemmas and letting yours melt away. Lamb’s work is, like the title implies, very detached. He jumps from idea to idea, using numerous different forms of literature to support them. However, his main idea is consistent throughout: reading is enjoyable. He even describes that most books should not be feared- that their obvious wear implies they are enjoyable and good forms of entertainment. He also discusses that those books with less wear are probably less enjoyable, but that there are many books that have been read over and over, proving their worth. Reading some of my classmates blogs, I realized that the topic of EBooks was brought up. The question was raised of what will our children’s books look like? A question I have is possibly even more cynical. Will books even exist in the same sense that they do now? Of course those families that are very focused around reading will instill those ideas in their children, but with video games, movies, music, the internet, and all the other forms of technology, will reading hold the same importance? Will children steal away to their rooms to read books or will they just sit on the couch and play video games to escape the real world? I believe the latter would be a terrible tragedy, although I know others think totally different. I believe novels, poetry, and other forms of literature (yes, even textbooks) all have a large piece of magic. The idea that we can sit down, read a series of words, learn infinite amounts, and enjoy ourselves is absolutely magical. Hopefully, that magic will not wear out in future generations.
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