In Reality, Every Reader Is...

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“In reality

every reader is,

while he is reading,

the reader of his own self.

The writer’s work

is merely a kind

of optical instrument

which he offers

to the reader

to enable him

to discern what,

without this book,

he would perhaps

never have perceived

in himself.”

― Marcel Proust

(Remembrance of Things Past)

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Marcel Proust is a French novelist, author of À la recherche du temps perdu (1913–27; In Search of Lost Time), a seven-volume novel based on Proust’s life told psychologically and allegorically. More of Marcle Proust...

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George Orwell and Aldous Huxley on Books

Photo grabbed from 9Gag

Brave New World is often compared with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), since they each offer a view of a dystopian future. Cultural critic Neil Postman spelled out the difference in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death:

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture. ... In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us."

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