It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books.
Interpretation
Children distinguish between reality and imagination, recognizing the truth in stories, even fictional ones.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote highlights the unique perspective of children, who understand that while unicorns are mythical, the emotions and truths conveyed through stories about them can be genuine and impactful. It speaks to the power of literature in shaping thought and fostering understanding, showing that the essence of a good story lies in its ability to convey deeper truths, regardless of the fantastical elements it may contain.
In practice
During a reading session with children, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of imagination in literature.
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
As a historically voracious reader - pre-baby, I averaged a book every week or two, and when I was a kid, I'd routinely read a book a day - I never understood how some people could not read. When I heard people say they didn't have time to read, in my head, I simultaneously pitied and ridiculed them: there was always time to read.
You need, as a historian, essential triangulation from your subject and the only way you get that triangulation is through time.
Unlike television, reading does not swallow the senses or dictate thought. Reading stimulates the ecology of the imagination. Can you remember the wonder you felt when first reading The Jungle Book or Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn? Kipling’s world within a world; Twain’s slow river, the feel of freedom and sand on the secret island, and in the depths of the cave?
We are all born with the power of speech, but we need grammar. Conscience, too, needs Revelation.
What can happen if a young reader picks up a book he/she isn't yet ready for? Questions, maybe. Usually, that child puts down the book and says, 'Boring.' Or, 'I'm not ready for this.' Kids are really good at knowing what they can handle.
It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time - for we are bound by that - but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time.
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