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Doris Lessing's Words on the Internet

by deana24 @ 2007-12-08 - 16:52:46

I've never been a Doris Lessing fan. I know, I know, shocking... I've occasionally voiced this opinion and been greeted with incredulous stares. You would have thought I's just said I didn't like kittens or I thought Bambi's mother probably deserved to die.

I just don't get her. I don't get why cherries are such a big deal, I don't understand why anyone watches the X-factor.

And it seems Ms Lessing isn't wild about the internet. In her Nobel prize acceptance speech last night she lamented its influence on children and that they are abandoning reading for its 'inanities'.

Children I meet seem to read with veracious appetites and polish off more books in a week than I can read in a month. Every town seems to have a children's book award and look at the incredible popularity of Harry Potter.

I can see why she fears for children's eduction in Zimbabwe but are children in 'privileged' countries' really shunning books for the internet?

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thespianthespian pro
2007-12-08 @ 16:59

if my nieces (aged 11 and 9) are anything to go by, yes.
they'll watch tv, surf the net, but reading books...?
only if they have to!

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deana24deana24 [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 17:02

Really? Maybe I just know all the bookworms. One kid I know gets through about 20 books a month.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
http://www.usksider.co.uk
2007-12-08 @ 17:15

I think this reading issue is quite interesting.

My daughter never ever read very much; no matter how much she was encouraged, she just didn't enjoy reading.... but I'm talking about while she was im primary school and had no access to the Internet, no games consoles, no TV of her own...

Now she's in university and has her own computer with extremely fast Internet access (thanks to the university's high-speed network), a games console, TV, DVD player, pubs, bars, boyfriends, etc. and no-one to encourage her to ever pick up a book...

So what does she do?

Well she plays with all the toys of course, BUT she reads for pleasure.

Says it all really...

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deana24deana24 [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 17:32

Books are wonderful but they are clearly not the only learning tool in the box. Sounds like she's turned out just fine.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
http://www.usksider.co.uk
2007-12-08 @ 17:38

She's doing her own thing and learning about life; like any dad, I am of course extremely proud. :yes:

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deana24deana24 [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 20:27

You can tell how proud you are by the words you choose. She sounds terrific. Good for you, both of you.

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UsksiderUsksider pro
http://www.usksider.co.uk
2007-12-09 @ 07:49

Thank you. :)

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jackfrostjackfrost pro
2007-12-08 @ 20:52

Shows what i know...who the hell is Doris Lessing...never heard of her..as for the reading and books...i am sure it was the same things said whaen radio came out...and then the same when TV came along...tape recorder...dvd...tinternet...what will the next be....travel on a train and tell me reading is in decline...:)

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deana24deana24 [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 21:05

She was really popular with one of my A-level teachers... and I couldn't stand her either. You are absolutely right. What I love about the internet is how it's opened up communication so we can talk to and learn about people all over the world from our own back bedrooms. Our obsession with mobile phones, email, blogging... it's all about reaching out and communicating - sharing, exploring, learning... books are something else entirely and to suggest the internet stifles learning and the imagination.. well, it's just not getting it, is it?

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jackfrostjackfrost pro
2007-12-08 @ 21:19

It is like when the head of the american paitent office made a speach to congress in the 1920's stating that they should not give anymore funding to his office as...and I quote

"everything that can be invented has been invented"

:))

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technomisttechnomist [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 22:23

I'll bet they were saying similar things when cuniform on clay gave way to inky scratches on beaten plant matter.

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hannahfurhannahfur [Member]
http://www.finetune.com/user/hannahfur
2007-12-08 @ 21:12

forgive my ignorance but...who is doris lessing?

deana24deana24 [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 21:24

Nothing to forgive, if i hadn't had to listen to one of my A-level communications teachers (first year only thank god) bang on about her I wouldn't know who she was either. She's a worthy author who writes a lot about Africa and she's just got the Nobel prize for literature.

Not my cup of hemlock at all. As Nobel prize winners go I'd recommend Hermann Hesse. He wrote about what it's like to be an individual in a herd and how you face that. Damian is blindingly good.

mycorneroftheworldmycorneroftheworld [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 22:26

The only thing I know about Doris Lessing, is that she got the Nobel Prize as it is a Swedish prize. I have never read any of her books.

Reading seems to be very different from person to person. My daughter has always enjoyed reading, while my sons don't. I was not very fond of reading myself, when I was a child but I took it up later.

:wave:

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deana24deana24 [Member]
2007-12-08 @ 22:49

We all find our place with things at our own pace, don't we. I don't know why people carry on like it's a race.

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thehomelyyearthehomelyyear pro
2007-12-09 @ 14:26

I've never felt tempted to read Doris Lessing either, I'm afraid. I seem to have no time to commit myself to the X-factor. But, I think with these programmes you watch them all the way through and get hooked - or avoid - maybe for that reason.

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