In my own personal experience, I’ve never felt that a book we’ve been told to read for school was a complete waste, but at the same time, I know my peers have had moments where they don’t understand why a book “has anything to do with them.” In high school, especially, students often can’t relate to the novels their English teacher assigns them, and therefore disregard what they’ve been assigned to read. This illustrates Emerson’s point that each age “must write its own books,” that the books of the past won’t satiate the literary needs of future generations. I can’t say that I completely agree with this idea; certain books inarguably have a timeless appeal to them, and their themes span across generations. For instance, I can’t understand it when people say they hated reading Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger in high school. I think Holden Caulfield is a universal character: the disillusioned teenager who finds himself questioning the world he has grown up in. And these days there’s no shortage of teenagers venting about their lives on blogs. Holden Caulfield, whether they know it or not, is almost like their patron saint. On the other hand, the influx of new technology takes young readers away from the low-tech eras portrayed in the books that are usually assigned to high school students. Technology changes the way we live and how we interact with the world so much that, someday, students may find it impossible to relate to books with settings devoid of technology.
Emerson on Books Part II
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in the first essay, you focus well on emerson’s concern for stagnation (a good word and idea to track in his writing; when things stop moving). i wonder in your autobiographical reading if you have experienced stagnation. i hear that Catcher might be an example of anti-stagnation from the past, though do you think a contemporary version of Holden would read just as well? your word ‘universal’ is another key word and idea for emerson, so you also start to pick up a tension if not contradiction in his thinking: books convey universals.