Finding the Lesson
Jonathan Lallement
A lesson is something learned, it is what we take away from an experience, sometimes you have to live it, sometimes you have to see it and sometimes you can just read it.
The beauty of reading is you gain experience in a way that describes even the smallest detail whereas modern day technology such as Television, movies and, audio versions don’t explain every detail the way words can. Reading shows a lesson in this way, when you read a story that has been turned into a show or a movie you often feel that it has lost a lot of substance and you are getting the summary that’s on the back of the book. The substance of a story in comparison to a Hollywood version can sometimes feel draining but the knowledge held between pages is much more “appetizing” than held between film. This knowledge adds to an experience that you do not have to live or even see, just imagine. The imagination of someone is so powerful that reading can create more of a level of sympathy, empathy and, understanding of the concepts of a story. We as readers get to go inside someone’s brain and see events; fictional or otherwise, as our own.
This isn’t only for fiction stories though, when you read the news you get to see every detail of a story and every piece of bias shown. In an article writers often use certain words to show their bias and that creates a unity of sympathy between the reader and writer that should be embraced and not discarded. Nonfiction, which should not be biased, shows us events how they happened and why they happened which is like time traveling. Nonfiction and the lesson you learn should be linked with the quote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. Stories always have a lesson to learn and with fiction it is about building a concept of the world happening between the lines and taking what happens to the characters and applying it to a life that is felt and not read because even in a Sci-Fi novel we have emotional and logical connections that we can learn and apply. In a news article we can build a connection with the Journalist writing and be sympathetic of what is happening right now but we need the understanding of the past in nonfiction to correctly understand what is going on. These are broad lessons of reading but with these lessons a reader can search for the knowledge to carry onward into their life.