Books and the WorldMatti Peltonen
Western thinking is ruled by an ambivalent relation to written text. A romanticised attitude, which focuses on the bygone days, stresses the destruction by the printed word of spoken culture, democracy, immediateness and creative complexity. Writing also forms precondition for rationality, since a text that has been stored by writing, has also been scrutinised, is logical and forms a coherent whole. Thus, writing can easily be regarded just as a neutral tool for thinking. In addition to being an obstacle to creativity, it may also pose a threat to democracy. Cultures with a written tradition - and even more so, compulsory education - are thought to be characteristic of suppressing military empires.
The same thing can, however, be seen exactly in the opposite way as the availability of books and periodicals, decreasing censorship and freedom to publish are also prerequisites for democracy.
This strong ambivalence was also seen in the birth of modern libraries in the 18th century, since their creation broke many social restrictions and rules, while at the same time, the "passion for reading,'' was criticised for its demoralising influence on the public.
Translated by Liisa Salmi