“Why Read Old Books?”

This was the response of my son when I told him that he had to read J. Verne’s’ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. According to my son this book is old and boring, (Just think if I had him read the Illiad, he would have went into convulsions.) So, why should my son have to read old books? Is not The Adventures of Captain Underpants good enough?

Since I was not raised with Classical literature, and as one who came late to the game what could I say to my son concerning this question? Any reading when compared to video games is “boring.” In video games you have the imagery created for you, in books you have to create the imagery. For example, in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Captain Nemo isn’t some 2-D character on the screen (Okay 3-D for PS2 and above) as the reader you have to take Julius Verne’s words and imagine Captain Nemo, that is work and nowadays anything relating to work is ‘boring.’ Video games, with the whiz, bang of exciting flashes, character and even storylines is passive entertainment. My son is a spectator in a world that is already created for him.

So it seems like old books don’t have a chance in today’s video game drenched society. So how did I defend my requirement for my son to read the ‘old books’? First, I told him that most things that are truly worthwhile you have to work for it, and that includes the reading of classical literature. As I admitted above I came late to the game. I read Homer’s Odyssey for the first time last year. It was not an ‘easy’ endeavor to get through 24 chapters of Greek epic poetry, but it was well worth the struggle. I was able to examine the idea of Greek heroes and ancient virtues and juxtapose those ideas against our modern understanding of heroes. Furthermore, I was able to get a deeper understanding of what it means to be a leader, as portrayed by Odysseus. I could not have gotten this from a video game no matter how good the graphics are, or the storyline.

Second, like the Book of Ecclesiastes says ‘there is nothing new under the sun,’ and that it definitely true for stories. There are no new themes in modern stories, but variations of the themes that have been around since ancient times. Even the storylines in video games borrow from classical literature with spruced up graphics and player interaction. The Legend of Zelda by Nintendo has overtures to Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid. But my son will never see the connections and allusions unless he reads the original works.

Well, my son was not convinced by my argumentation. It came down to I, the father, telling my son what he will read this summer or he will not play the very video games he so much loves. I was hoping that my son would desire to read these old books on his own and explore, through story, the very world that God has created, but it wasn’t so. I pray that in the end he will appreciate what I had him do this summer in reading the ‘old books’ so that when he has a son (or daughter) he will explain the “why do read old books.”