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Jean
06-19-2014, 09:29 AM
will post a quote on books and reading for discussion every Thursday

Today's quote:

“Books don't change people; paragraphs do, Sometimes even sentences.”

― John Piper, A Godward Life: Savoring the Supremacy of God in All of Life

What does everyone think?

I personally think it's not true. Apparently, it's a paragraph or a sentence that stays in memory and works inside people's mind; it's an idea that, of course, is expressed in one sentence or so that changes people.

But it takes a book to make this idea be heard. If a book contains an important idea - as important as to change one's life - then the book is the proof of the idea, and the idea is worthless without the book.

Not to go too far for an example, let's take "Stand and be true". It is a big thing, actually, and I hope - and I know - it matters for many here. But what would it be worth if we didn't know who and why and how says (and lives) it?

That is why a book - a whole book - may change people, while a treatise on philosophy seldom does.

jhanic
06-19-2014, 11:31 AM
I don't think the basic statement that books change people is always true. People often approach almost any book with biases that will override any ideas within the book, especially if those ideas are antithetical to their preconceptions.

John

ladysai
06-19-2014, 11:55 AM
I must disagree with John, say sorry.

I have found that reading books that contain characters,situations, and ideas that are foreign usually become catalysts for reflection and reconsideration. By learning of new ideas through a compelling story, one can broaden their views, even if just a little bit.
Of course this isnt always true. Some readers will always see things their own way, regardless.

I do agree with bears in that if any change is possible, it takes an entire story to drive the point home, rather than bits and pieces taken out of context.

jhanic
06-19-2014, 12:18 PM
I guess it's my cynicism showing.

John

Jean
06-20-2014, 12:26 PM
I don't think the basic statement that books change people is always true. People often approach almost any book with biases that will override any ideas within the book, especially if those ideas are antithetical to their preconceptions.

John
But the basic statement wasn't that books always change people; it was that if a book changes someone, it's not the whole book but a single passage, and that's what I disagree with. In brackets - I don't think the value of books should be exaggerated, but still books seem to be the main source of change (assuming change is possible at all), second only to personal experience. Bears agree with what ladysai said; note that she too qualifies it:



I have found that reading books that contain characters,situations, and ideas that are foreign usually become catalysts for reflection and reconsideration. By learning of new ideas through a compelling story, one can broaden their views, even if just a little bit.
Of course this isnt always true. Some readers will always see things their own way, regardless.

I do agree with bears in that if any change is possible, it takes an entire story to drive the point home, rather than bits and pieces taken out of context.

jhanic
06-20-2014, 12:49 PM
Thanks for the correction, Bears!

John

Jean
06-20-2014, 01:00 PM
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mishemplushem/media/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif.html)http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mishemplushem/media/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif.html)http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mishemplushem/media/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif.html)

another question... it's not directly related to the discussed quotation, but I suddenly thought of it when you said

I guess it's my cynicism showing.

We seem to assume that when we say "books change people", we mean change for the better. But how about books changing people for the worse? Making people see things in dark light, lose hope and faith, driving them insane? Here, again, I am sure it would take a whole book, not only an apt quote, though the quote will surely be instrumental in driving the decisive nail in that coffin.

jhanic
06-20-2014, 05:22 PM
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mishemplushem/media/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif.html)http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mishemplushem/media/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif.html)http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k291/mishemplushem/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif (http://s91.photobucket.com/user/mishemplushem/media/Facilitation/0134-bear.gif.html)

another question... it's not directly related to the discussed quotation, but I suddenly thought of it when you said

I guess it's my cynicism showing.

We seem to assume that when we say "books change people", we mean change for the better. But how about books changing people for the worse? Making people see things in dark light, lose hope and faith, driving them insane? Here, again, I am sure it would take a whole book, not only an apt quote, though the quote will surely be instrumental in driving the decisive nail in that coffin.

I think that would be true if the person were unbalanced and all it took was a book (or a tv show or something else) to set him/her off.

John

DoctorZaius
06-21-2014, 06:01 AM
I actually quite agree with ― John Piper. When I think about the books that have most affected my life I tend to always come back to the small moments contained within. Go back and reread pages 230-235 in the hard cover edition of Cell. Cell itself, while profound on many levels, does not itself change me. It's the small scenes, in this case Alice's death with haunts me sentence by sentence and even paragraph by paragraph. The scene is perhaps the one that sticks with me most in King's whole cannon of story telling. Yes, there are better books that resonate with me, The Stand, IT, and even the The Dark Tower series as a whole, but it's still the small moments in a book, and in life, that stick with us most, that ultimately change us. I hope this makes sense.