Thursday, February 7, 2013

Tinted Glasses

"The history of the world is not one big book, but several small ones"
No event recorded can ever be recorded in all its glory with every shred of thought that went into making the event . Even what little of it is recorded is based on the perception and bias of the writer, since it is upto him to decide what to record and what to leave out. So, the question arises, why do we read books when we know what is recorded in them is tinted?


A single event has several ways to perceive it. For example my very act of writing an article could be perceived as boring and ordinary by people who regularly use the computer or as an extra-ordinary feat by an il-literate person. This difference stems from the surroundings that the people are exposed to.
Every book, every article of any event is one such perception of an event, it is the point of view of one person, the author.

The author, even if he tries to maintain an independent opinion on the subject unconsciously calls on his upbringing when he tries to frame his thoughts. For example, an Indian author trying to describe the Indian way of life from a visiting tourist's point of view will unwittingly use a few terms that lie well outside the vocabulary of most tourists, simply because those are used frequently in his interactions

The simplest but not very time-saving way of going about this is to read as many books as possible about a certain event. Since, every book you read paints your perception of an event in its own tint, reading several books, each with their own distinct tint will paint a reasonably accurate picture of the event. The problem with this is, fairly obviously, the number of books that cover the event should be fairly large and should each have a different perception making it very time consuming.
The other solution which is much more challenging is to take a book, preferably of one who has attempted to remain objective about the event ( again, tough since events that are worth recording usually tend to bias people either for or against is ) and deconstruct the book within the psyche of his mind. Meaning that we first have to analyze the thoughts of the author through the rest of his books and using what is learned through that, attempt to workout the content of the book that isnt biased. Easier said that done.

Or as they say, let bygones be bygones, forget the event, pick up a fiction, play songs and let the world go round.


Music to listen :

Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve on Grooveshark

Hotel California by The Eagles on Grooveshark

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