bitterdiva

Summertime and the reading’s easy

The count of books read this summer stands at a whopping seven, which is an all time summer record for me; I believe that’s even a record for the number read in a year. I believe I said this before; I’m not a very big literary person – in my youth the idea of being forced to read books was never appealing. Mandating that a person read something because it’s apart of standardized curriculum completely turns me off, especially if that book is some timeless tradition that all persons within a certain age group must read.

Children today have it easier, when given the task for a book report they can now turn to Harry Potter, Coraline, or The Thief Lord, and numerous other fantastic reads that were unfortunately not around ten to fifteen years ago. I applaud the brave authors that take a blind leap and embark on journeys full adventure captivating a wide range of audiences. The efforts put forth by these select few are opening new worlds to children today, unbeknownst to these kiddies, they will grow up as well-rounded individuals than those a generation before them.

The opportunities available today such as advancing and affordable technology and imaginative literature present a solution to the village idiots running a muck in the country. Feeling a bit nostalgic and perhaps a bit ancient, I think of the web as a child. As I entered college, the internet was pre-pubescent, it was growing in spurts but it was still too elementary and awkward so it was unpopular, unaffordable, and only the government, businesses, and educational institutions were harnessing that power.

As a couple of years passed (but not too many) the child entered puberty, growing at a fast rate and the elite slowly became commonplace. I remember a time when companies’ commercials were boasting about their new websites introducing it to millions of citizens acclimating them to the idea of an url. Not all companies however were prestigious enough to have their own website and it was a mixture of commercials with and without urls.

More development ensued with the child, as it became a teenager, faster and more powerful leading away from dial-up connections to a continuous connection of broadband. The world was reformed and every company hopped on the bandwagon to give the increasing numbers of web savvy customers information about their products. A new branch of computer science became prominent and employment opened up to the select few would find their niche in web programming. A teenage crush came into existence.

A teenage crush is so named for the half-life uncertainty and impending weight of disappointment lurking around the bend. Like so many teenage crushes, individuals become hurt; the once child now teenager beheld an extraordinary beauty drawing millions to its enchantment. Citizens fell in love and used the teenager to build up their bank, savings, and stock accounts. But the teenager grew unreliable under the misdirection of its lovers and the affair ended like an ugly middle-aged divorce. Many were separated, some remain on the hinge of the affair, and some worked through the differences and were unscathed.

Today the teenager is still growing, blossoming into a young adult full of vices such as porn, gambling, and multiplayer online gaming. The pain of the past is slowly healing and becoming ancient history. The adult is more reliable but that’s only because of the learned lessons and the lack of fanatic citizens placing the adult on a pedestal to be worshiped. It does, however, have a supernatural power of a god; the knowledge contained within its system is all knowing and all-powerful, it almost has every answer to your questions. It could also be compared to a prostitute, every month you give the pimps of the adult your money and they provide you with every facet of its being.

Comparing the internet to a human being does have one major glitch, such as life expectancy. But at some point in their lives the prophets, and humane figures of religion had a life expectancy and they continue to exist in some fashion, transcending into eternity. Or just like Eddings’ Ancient One, Belgarath, the internet can become the Eternal Man. (Oh come on, you knew somewhere that I had to throw in one of the characters from the series I’m reading and merge the alpha and omega of this post.)

11:51 AM

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