Sam Hartman
2/3/10
English
Reading of the New Age
Books and literature have been around for centuries and have helped educate people and teach them many valuable lessons. Today, some feel that books are being lost due to the increasing use of technology, and the advancements being made in that field. Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies, believes that reading, in the modern age, has become obsolete. His statements are false, reading has not become extinct, but it has evolved, into a more contemporary form that appeals to present society.
When I was growing up, my life was completely different than Birkets. As a child, I never enjoyed books, and hated reading while Birkets, “loved just thinking about books”(Birkets 39).u I never read for fun and would barely even read the books that were assigned for class. There were many points in my childhood when I can remember my mother yelling at me to go read. I think the main reason for my dislike of reading is due to the difficulty I have reading. While I was in elementary school I found out that I had a learning problem. I was a very slow reader, and I could barely write coherent paragraphs and papers. Class made things much worse too, I would get very frustrated because of my fellow students’ reading speed and their skills at writing. There were many days when I despaired that I would never be able to fulfill my dreams, or future career, because of the difficulty I had with reading.
There was only one place that I could take refuge from reading, in the world of videogames. I have been playing videogames ever since I can remember. Some of my earliest memories were playing videogames with my brothers. I grew up in a house with two older brothers who loved videogames. They were five and seven years older and I feel because of this I developed a love for them. They were the first to introduce me to videogames, even when I was too young to even really understand what to do in the game. As I grew up they showed me the fun and enjoyment you could get from videogames. My brothers were the biggest role models for me and without them I do not think I would have developed a strong love for videogames, as I have now.
Many people believe, my mother being one of them, that videogames were the anti-book. These people were convinced that books were tools for education and videogames would just rot the brain. I feel that videogames are just books in a different form. In many cases a fiction novel is a story that goes beyond the boundary of the real world. Some books take you to a world where the hero is in great battle with his nemesis. Birkets says that books could “be converted into an environment, an inward depth populated with characters and animated by diverse excitements”(Birkets, 35) and although Birkets would never admit it, videogames can be described in the same way. There is only one difference between videogames and books; in videogames the player is able to decide how the hero interacts with his nemesis.
People can learn just as much from books as they can from videogames. In school, during English class, it was easy for me to understand and learn about the parts that make up a story, such as who the main character is, who the main antagonist is, or even what the climax and resolution are. While I was young, I picked up on many new vocabulary words while playing videogames as well. My skills with mathematics increased significantly from playing videogames. In some games I would have to figure out what weapon or spell or move would do more damage vs. the speed that it took to use it. All of this, “number crunching” as it is more commonly referred to, forced me to become better in math or else I would be unable to play the game as successfully. Today there are some videogames that are made for the soul reason of education. Videogames should be viewed today in a more positive light and should be used more often in school to assist in educating the youth.
During the early years of videogames, many believed that these games caused children to be more violent. Many people blamed school shootings, on the assailants’ playing of videogames at home. Many people do not recognize the fact that books are equally, if not more, violent and gruesome as videogames. Books often describe the way their characters die, or are killed, and watching someone be killed instead of creating a mental picture is better because the game can make it less graphic. Many times in videogames, the creators could have made the characters of monsters die in an extremely bloody way, but they refrain from it and make it less appalling.
Due to my videogame use, I was able to overcome my learning problem, which may not have been possible any other way. After spending many years of my life refusing to read books, unless dictated by the school, I finally started to read on my own time. As a result of my reading, I now have a better understanding of books and their plot structure. I no longer feel frustrated during class and can finally keep up with the reading pace of other people. Videogames have really taught me a lot, more then I sometimes care to share with people.
Originally, books were a form of entertainment, and an explanation for the unknown. As time progressed they became a source of knowledge and were read by all. As technology developed, books have become less and less vital to society, and videogames have become increasingly popular. Videogames should not be viewed as the rival of books, but rather an evolution of them.
Birkerts, Sven. The Gutenberg Elegies. 2006 ed. Union Square west, NewYork: Faber and Faber, inc, 2006. Print.
