Book Blogger Hop No. 146: A Future Without Books?!

Welcome to the Book Blogger Hop,

Halloween Edition!!

This event is hosted by Billy @

Ramblings of a Coffee-Addicted Writer!

For more information, and 

to find out the topic of next week's question, click HERE.

This Week's Question

You are suddenly transported

into a future time in which

(horrors!) books are unknown.

How would you explain

books, and how wonderful they

are, to the people of that time?

(Submitted  by Maria @

A Night's Dream of Books)

My Answer

Actually, this question has nothing whatsoever to do with Halloween. Except that it would definitely be a nightmare if books were totally unknown at some future time. At least, we, the book-loving time travelers, would experience such a future as a horrible one!  :)

I realize that, in asking this question, I gave no details about this hypothetical future society. Also, the fact that we travelers would suddenly be thrust into a world alien to us, with no preparation whatsoever, would be a huge challenge. 

Upon further thought, I believe this hypothetical society could be either at a primitive technological level, or at one so advanced that technology itself had become obsolete, and the inhabitants did everything through telepathy. Either scenario would definitely test the imaginative and teaching abilities of us time travelers!

Before I proceed, I want to make one thing clear, which I think I should have included in the question: we time travelers will have an extended stay in this future society. We will eventually return to our own time, but we will spend several years in the future society. Therefore, we will have plenty of time and opportunities to explain books to our thought-experiment society. 

In the case of the primitive society, which would most likely -- and unfortunately -- have come about because of nuclear destruction, so the survivors would have had to start from scratch, all over again, there's one major point to consider. Primitive societies tend to be very superstitious, with prevalent beliefs in magic, various gods, etc. To the inhabitants of such a society, reading and books would appear to be magical in nature. Of course, books ARE, indeed, magical in nature, metaphorically speaking. Therefore, I think I would start by describing, orally, how magical journeys could be undertaken through the mysterious art of reading strange markings made on stone tablets. This would be my starting point. Once I got them fascinated, I would then have to go about inventing an alphabet, and then teaching these people to read, to decipher the meanings behind words and sentences. Later on, I would make an actual, physical, primitive book, using rudimentary paper -- perhaps parchment. I would have to teach them the process of turning pages, as well, of scanning, and visualization of the story as they read. I would probably include pictures, which I would draw on the pages of this primitive book (after locating some crude graphite or soft charcoal somewhere, or perhaps plant-based ink), and further books to follow. I guess the covers would have to consist of several layers of parchment glued together somehow -- perhaps with a sticky material taken from some sort of plant. 

Anyway, this would be a long, arduous process, as, basically, I would have to reinvent the book. At some future point, a printing press would also have to be built. This would of course involve the use of various metals. It would be very complicated! I'm sure this would be a very rewarding process, however, especially if I were to be perceived as a goddess come from the sky to teach the primitives this new and exciting magic! Lol. Of course, I would also do my best to eventually tell them that I was just an ordinary human being. But I would enjoy my goddess status for a while...... :)

In the case of the other type of society, different challenges would be presented. This type of society would have probably evolved or advanced to the point that, with a mere thought, they could do and get whatever they wanted. Thus, technology as we know it today might seem very archaic to them. Even ebooks would seem ancient, I think. 

In this case, I would have to first befriend someone from that time period.  (I'm thinking it would be pretty far into the future, too, like say, in the year 3150...) Who knows, maybe these people wouldn't even know how to use their vocal chords anymore, if they did everything through telepathy! So perhaps I'd have to attempt some sort of sign language in order to try to convey to one of the inhabitants that I'm harmless and come in peace. Lol. Things would be much easier, though, if one of these people could communicate with me merely by touching my temples, and projecting images into my mind. Sort of like a Vulcan mind meld. If you don't know what the heck THAT is, you're obviously not a Star Trek fan. Lol. 

Well, so let's say I establish rapport that way with one of the "natives". Once I did so, this person would project what they wanted to "say" to me through visual thoughts, and perhaps even words. It all depends, though, on how good of a student I was. This would probably take some time. At some point, however, I would hopefully be able to master the projection of thoughts and images myself. That's when I would project an image of a printed book. Yes, a PRINTED book. I would not want these people to have ANYTHING to do with ebooks! (But who knows, they might be able to access my images of them....alas!)

I would start by projecting images of various books from my memory banks (the mind IS a computer, after all), and then start projecting actual memories of myself reading and enjoying books. I think I'd have to teach these people the joys of reading, too, and they might not know anything about alphabets, letters, sentences, and so forth. 

Of course, I'd also project images of several stories I have stored in my memory banks, as well. Who knows, they might not know some of our most cherished stories, such as the tales of King Arthur, or the SF novels of Isaac Asimov, or even Shakespeare's plays. On the other hand, these things might be stored in some digital vault somewhere, to be accessed at the touch of an ancient screen. Or maybe they just think of a particular author, and they can immediately access the records. But I think that these people might not know the value and enjoyment of actually perusing these stories through the means of the printed book. So it would be very important for me to project the emotions behind reading, as well -- the sheer delights (and sorrows, in the case of drama/tragedy) of reading.

With the second hypothetical society, I would be able to differentiate between fiction and nonfiction, and communicate the need for, and value of, each of these broad genres. This type of thing would be possible with the primitive society, too, but only after a couple of centuries of working with them on this. (I might be able to come across some special process that would prolong my life. Or perhaps my successors would be able to carry on with "The Reading Project".)

The process of communicating the value of books would be a long one with this second society, too. In both hypothetical scenarios -- the primitive and the greatly advanced one -- the results would be well worth the effort, I think. Books, and reading, are such incredibly miraculous and wonderful inventions of the human race, that the knowledge of their existence, as well as their intellectual, emotional, and spiritual, value, must be passed on, for future generations to discover for themselves. And, if one of us were able to take a little trip in Time to perform this invaluable service to humanity, then we, like the members of the Federation of Planets in the Star Trek universe, can be confident that the future will be a hopeful one!

What are your thoughts on

this topic?

If you're participating in this hop,

I'll go comment on your 

own BBH post.

If not, I will then comment on one 

of your blog posts!

Thanks for visiting!!!