Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming | Book

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Neil Gaiman Why our future depends on libraries$ reading and daydreaming
A lecture explaining why using our imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all citizens Also on the site: all about Eleanor Catton's Boo er win A! Byatt on "he #cean at the End of the $ane
Neil Gaiman theguardian.com$ Tuesday 23 5ctober 6)2( 27.32 +%T

'We have an obligation to imagine' Neil Gaiman gives The Reading Agency annual lecture on the future of reading and libraries. Photograph Robin !ayes

"t's important for people to tell you #hat side they are on and #hy$ and #hether they might be biased. A declaration of members' interests$ of a sort. %o$ " am going to be tal&ing to you about reading. "'m going to tell you that libraries are important. "'m going to suggest that reading fiction$ that reading for pleasure$ is one of the most important things one can do. "'m going to ma&e an impassioned plea for people to understand #hat libraries and librarians are$ and to preserve both of these things. And " am biased$ obviously and enormously "'m an author$ often an author of fiction. " #rite for children and for adults. 'or about () years " have been earning my living though my #ords$ mostly by ma&ing things up and #riting them do#n. "t is obviously in my interest for people to read$ for them to read fiction$ for libraries and librarians to e*ist and help foster a love of reading and places in #hich reading can occur. %o "'m biased as a #riter. +ut " am much$ much more biased as a reader. And " am even more biased as a +ritish citi,en. And "'m here giving this tal& tonight$ under the auspices of the Reading Agency a charity #hose mission is to give everyone an e-ual chance in life by helping people become confident and enthusiastic readers. Which supports literacy programs$ and libraries and individuals and na&edly and #antonly encourages the act of reading. +ecause$ they tell us$ everything changes #hen #e read. And it's that change$ and that act of reading that "'m here to tal& about tonight. " #ant to tal& about #hat reading does. What it's good for. " #as once in Ne# .or&$ and " listened to a tal& about the building of private prisons / a huge gro#th industry in America. The prison industry needs to plan its future gro#th / ho# many cells are they going to need0 1o# many prisoners are there going to be$ 23 years from no#0 And they found they could predict it very easily$ using a pretty simple algorithm$ based on as&ing #hat percentage of 2) and 224year4olds couldn't read. And certainly couldn't read for pleasure.

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"t's not one to one you can't say that a literate society has no criminality. +ut there are very real correlations. And " thin& some of those correlations$ the simplest$ come from something very simple. 8iterate people read fiction. 'iction has t#o uses. 'irstly$ it's a gate#ay drug to reading. The drive to &no# #hat happens ne*t$ to #ant to turn the page$ the need to &eep going$ even if it's hard$ because someone's in trouble and you have to &no# ho# it's all going to end that's a very real drive. And it forces you to learn ne# #ords$ to thin& ne# thoughts$ to &eep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. 5nce you learn that$ you're on the road to reading everything. And reading is &ey. There #ere noises made briefly$ a fe# years ago$ about the idea that #e #ere living in a post4literate #orld$ in #hich the ability to ma&e sense out of #ritten #ords #as someho# redundant$ but those days are gone #ords are more important than they ever #ere #e navigate the #orld #ith #ords$ and as the #orld slips onto the #eb$ #e need to follo#$ to communicate and to comprehend #hat #e are reading. People #ho cannot understand each other cannot e*change ideas$ cannot communicate$ and translation programs only go so far. The simplest #ay to ma&e sure that #e raise literate children is to teach them to read$ and to sho# them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means$ at its simplest$ finding boo&s that they en9oy$ giving them access to those boo&s$ and letting them read them. " don't thin& there is such a thing as a bad boo& for children. :very no# and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children's boo&s$ a genre$ perhaps$ or an author$ and to declare them bad boo&s$ boo&s that children should be stopped from reading. "'ve seen it happen over and over; :nid +lyton #as declared a bad author$ so #as R8 %tine$ so #ere do,ens of others. <omics have been decried as fostering illiteracy.

No such thing as a bad #riter... :nid +lyton's 'amous 'ive. Photograph Greg +alfour :vans=Alamy "t's tosh. "t's snobbery and it's foolishness. There are no bad authors for children$ that children li&e and #ant to read and see& out$ because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to$ and they bring themselves to stories. A hac&neyed$ #orn4 out idea isn't hac&neyed and #orn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. >o not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the #rong thing. 'iction you do not li&e is a route to other boo&s you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you. Well4meaning adults can easily destroy a child's love of reading stop them reading #hat they en9oy$ or give them #orthy4but4dull boo&s that you li&e$ the 62st4century e-uivalents of ?ictorian @improving@ literature. .ou'll #ind up #ith a generation convinced that reading is uncool and #orse$ unpleasant. We need our children to get onto the reading ladder anything that they en9oy reading #ill move them up$ rung by rung$ into literacy. AAlso$ do not do #hat this author did #hen his 224year4old daughter #as into R8 %tine$ #hich is to go and get a copy of %tephen Bing's <arrie$ saying if you li&ed those you'll love thisC 1olly read nothing but safe stories of settlers on prairies for the rest of her teenage years$ and still glares at me #hen %tephen Bing's name is mentioned.D And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you #atch T? or see a film$ you are loo&ing at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 6E letters and a handful of punctuation mar&s$ and you$ and you alone$ using your imagination$ create a #orld and people it and loo& out through other eyes. .ou get to feel things$ visit places and #orlds you #ould never other#ise &no#. .ou

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Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming | Book

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learn that everyone else out there is a me$ as #ell. .ou're being someone else$ and #hen you return to your o#n #orld$ you're going to be slightly changed. :mpathy is a tool for building people into groups$ for allo#ing us to function as more than self4obsessed individuals. .ou're also finding out something as you read vitally important for ma&ing your #ay in the #orld. And it's this The #orld doesn't have to be li&e this. Things can be different. " #as in <hina in 6))F$ at the first party4approved science fiction and fantasy convention in <hinese history. And at one point " too& a top official aside and as&ed him Why0 %' had been disapproved of for a long time. What had changed0 "t's simple$ he told me. The <hinese #ere brilliant at ma&ing things if other people brought them the plans. +ut they did not innovate and they did not invent. They did not imagine. %o they sent a delegation to the G%$ to Apple$ to !icrosoft$ to Google$ and they as&ed the people there #ho #ere inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction #hen they #ere boys or girls. 'iction can sho# you a different #orld. "t can ta&e you some#here you've never been. 5nce you've visited other #orlds$ li&e those #ho ate fairy fruit$ you can never be entirely content #ith the #orld that you gre# up in. >iscontent is a good thing discontented people can modify and improve their #orlds$ leave them better$ leave them different. And #hile #e're on the sub9ect$ "'d li&e to say a fe# #ords about escapism. " hear the term bandied about as if it's a bad thing. As if @escapist@ fiction is a cheap opiate used by the muddled and the foolish and the deluded$ and the only fiction that is #orthy$ for adults or for children$ is mimetic fiction$ mirroring the #orst of the #orld the reader finds herself in. "f you #ere trapped in an impossible situation$ in an unpleasant place$ #ith people #ho meant you ill$ and someone offered you a temporary escape$ #hy #ouldn't you ta&e it0 And escapist fiction is 9ust that fiction that opens a door$ sho#s the sunlight outside$ gives you a place to go #here you are in control$ are #ith people you #ant to be #ithAand boo&s are real places$ ma&e no mista&e about thatD; and more importantly$ during your escape$ boo&s can also give you &no#ledge about the #orld and your predicament$ give you #eapons$ give you armour real things you can ta&e bac& into your prison. %&ills and &no#ledge and tools you can use to escape for real. As HRR Tol&ien reminded us$ the only people #ho inveigh against escape are 9ailers.

Tol&ien's illustration of +ilbo's home$ +ag :nd. Photograph 1arper<ollins Another #ay to destroy a child's love of reading$ of course$ is to ma&e sure there are no boo&s of any &ind around. And to give them no#here to read those boo&s. " #as luc&y. " had an e*cellent local library gro#ing up. " had the &ind of parents #ho could be persuaded to drop me off in the library on their #ay to #or& in summer holidays$ and the &ind of librarians #ho did not mind a small$ unaccompanied boy heading bac& into the children's library every morning and #or&ing his #ay through the card catalogue$ loo&ing for boo&s #ith ghosts or magic or roc&ets in them$ loo&ing for vampires or detectives or #itches or #onders. And #hen " had finished reading the children's' library " began on the adult boo&s. They #ere good librarians. They li&ed boo&s and they li&ed the boo&s being read. They taught me ho# to order boo&s from other libraries on inter4library loans. They had no snobbery about anything " read. They 9ust seemed to li&e that there #as this #ide4eyed little boy #ho loved to read$ and #ould tal& to me about the boo&s " #as reading$ they #ould find me other boo&s in a series$ they #ould help. They treated me as another

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reader / nothing less or more / #hich meant they treated me #ith respect. " #as not used to being treated #ith respect as an eight4year4old. +ut libraries are about freedom. 'reedom to read$ freedom of ideas$ freedom of communication. They are about education A#hich is not a process that finishes the day #e leave school or universityD$ about entertainment$ about ma&ing safe spaces$ and about access to information. " #orry that here in the 62st century people misunderstand #hat libraries are and the purpose of them. "f you perceive a library as a shelf of boo&s$ it may seem anti-uated or outdated in a #orld in #hich most$ but not all$ boo&s in print e*ist digitally. +ut that is to miss the point fundamentally. " thin& it has to do #ith nature of information. "nformation has value$ and the right information has enormous value. 'or all of human history$ #e have lived in a time of information scarcity$ and having the needed information #as al#ays important$ and al#ays #orth something #hen to plant crops$ #here to find things$ maps and histories and stories / they #ere al#ays good for a meal and company. "nformation #as a valuable thing$ and those #ho had it or could obtain it could charge for that service. "n the last fe# years$ #e've moved from an information4scarce economy to one driven by an information glut. According to :ric %chmidt of Google$ every t#o days no# the human race creates as much information as #e did from the da#n of civilisation until 6))(. That's about five e*obytes of data a day$ for those of you &eeping score. The challenge becomes$ not finding that scarce plant gro#ing in the desert$ but finding a specific plant gro#ing in a 9ungle. We are going to need help navigating that information to find the thing #e actually need.

Photograph Alamy 8ibraries are places that people go to for information. +oo&s are only the tip of the information iceberg they are there$ and libraries can provide you freely and legally #ith boo&s. !ore children are borro#ing boo&s from libraries than ever before / boo&s of all &inds paper and digital and audio. +ut libraries are also$ for e*ample$ places that people$ #ho may not have computers$ #ho may not have internet connections$ can go online #ithout paying anything hugely important #hen the #ay you find out about 9obs$ apply for 9obs or apply for benefits is increasingly migrating e*clusively online. 8ibrarians can help these people navigate that #orld. " do not believe that all boo&s #ill or should migrate onto screens as >ouglas Adams once pointed out to me$ more than 6) years before the Bindle turned up$ a physical boo& is li&e a shar&. %har&s are old there #ere shar&s in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still shar&s around is that shar&s are better at being shar&s than anything else is. Physical boo&s are tough$ hard to destroy$ bath4resistant$ solar4 operated$ feel good in your hand they are good at being boo&s$ and there #ill al#ays be a place for them. They belong in libraries$ 9ust as libraries have already become places you can go to get access to eboo&s$ and audioboo&s and >?>s and #eb content. A library is a place that is a repository of information and gives every citi,en e-ual access to it. That includes health information. And mental health information. "t's a community space. "t's a place of safety$ a haven from the #orld. "t's a place #ith librarians in it. What the libraries of the future #ill be li&e is something #e should be imagining no#. 8iteracy is more important than ever it #as$ in this #orld of te*t and email$ a #orld of #ritten information. We need to read and #rite$ #e need global citi,ens #ho can read comfortably$ comprehend #hat they are reading$ understand nuance$ and ma&e themselves understood. 8ibraries really are the gates to the future. %o it is unfortunate that$ round the #orld$ #e observe local authorities sei,ing the opportunity to close libraries as an easy #ay to save

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money$ #ithout realising that they are stealing from the future to pay for today. They are closing the gates that should be open. According to a recent study by the 5rganisation for :conomic <ooperation and >evelopment$ :ngland is the @only country #here the oldest age group has higher proficiency in both literacy and numeracy than the youngest group$ after other factors$ such as gender$ socio4economic bac&grounds and type of occupations are ta&en into account@. 5r to put it another #ay$ our children and our grandchildren are less literate and less numerate than #e are. They are less able to navigate the #orld$ to understand it to solve problems. They can be more easily lied to and misled$ #ill be less able to change the #orld in #hich they find themselves$ be less employable. All of these things. And as a country$ :ngland #ill fall behind other developed nations because it #ill lac& a s&illed #or&force. +oo&s are the #ay that #e communicate #ith the dead. The #ay that #e learn lessons from those #ho are no longer #ith us$ that humanity has built on itself$ progressed$ made &no#ledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned$ over and over. There are tales that are older than most countries$ tales that have long outlasted the cultures and the buildings in #hich they #ere first told. " thin& #e have responsibilities to the future. Responsibilities and obligations to children$ to the adults those children #ill become$ to the #orld they #ill find themselves inhabiting. All of us / as readers$ as #riters$ as citi,ens / have obligations. " thought "'d try and spell out some of these obligations here. " believe #e have an obligation to read for pleasure$ in private and in public places. "f #e read for pleasure$ if others see us reading$ then #e learn$ #e e*ercise our imaginations. We sho# others that reading is a good thing. We have an obligation to support libraries. To use libraries$ to encourage others to use libraries$ to protest the closure of libraries. "f you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or #isdom. .ou are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future. We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they en9oy. To read to them stories #e are already tired of. To do the voices$ to ma&e it interesting$ and not to stop reading to them 9ust because they learn to read to themselves. Gse reading4 aloud time as bonding time$ as time #hen no phones are being chec&ed$ #hen the distractions of the #orld are put aside. We have an obligation to use the language. To push ourselves to find out #hat #ords mean and ho# to deploy them$ to communicate clearly$ to say #hat #e mean. We must not to attempt to free,e language$ or to pretend it is a dead thing that must be revered$ but #e should use it as a living thing$ that flo#s$ that borro#s #ords$ that allo#s meanings and pronunciations to change #ith time. We #riters / and especially #riters for children$ but all #riters / have an obligation to our readers it's the obligation to #rite true things$ especially important #hen #e are creating tales of people #ho do not e*ist in places that never #ere / to understand that truth is not in #hat happens but #hat it tells us about #ho #e are. 'iction is the lie that tells the truth$ after all. We have an obligation not to bore our readers$ but to ma&e them need to turn the pages. 5ne of the best cures for a reluctant reader$ after all$ is a tale they cannot stop themselves from reading. And #hile #e must tell our readers true things and give them #eapons and give them armour and pass on #hatever #isdom #e have gleaned from our short stay on this green #orld$ #e have an obligation not to preach$ not to lecture$ not to force predigested morals and messages do#n our readers' throats li&e adult birds feeding their babies pre4masticated maggots; and #e have an obligation never$ ever$ under any circumstances$ to #rite anything for children that #e #ould not #ant to read ourselves. We have an obligation to understand and to ac&no#ledge that as #riters for children #e are doing important #or&$ because if #e mess it up and #rite dull boo&s that turn

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children a#ay from reading and from boo&s$ #e 've lessened our o#n future and diminished theirs. We all / adults and children$ #riters and readers / have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. "t is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything$ that #e are in a #orld in #hich society is huge and the individual is less than nothing an atom in a #all$ a grain of rice in a rice field. +ut the truth is$ individuals change their #orld over and over$ individuals ma&e the future$ and they do it by imagining that things can be different. 8oo& around you " mean it. Pause$ for a moment and loo& around the room that you are in. "'m going to point out something so obvious that it tends to be forgotten. "t's this that everything you can see$ including the #alls$ #as$ at some point$ imagined. %omeone decided it #as easier to sit on a chair than on the ground and imagined the chair. %omeone had to imagine a #ay that " could tal& to you in 8ondon right no# #ithout us all getting rained on.This room and the things in it$ and all the other things in this building$ this city$ e*ist because$ over and over and over$ people imagined things. We have an obligation to ma&e things beautiful. Not to leave the #orld uglier than #e found it$ not to empty the oceans$ not to leave our problems for the ne*t generation. We have an obligation to clean up after ourselves$ and not leave our children #ith a #orld #e've shortsightedly messed up$ shortchanged$ and crippled. We have an obligation to tell our politicians #hat #e #ant$ to vote against politicians of #hatever party #ho do not understand the value of reading in creating #orth#hile citi,ens$ #ho do not #ant to act to preserve and protect &no#ledge and encourage literacy. This is not a matter of party politics. This is a matter of common humanity. Albert :instein #as as&ed once ho# #e could ma&e our children intelligent. 1is reply #as both simple and #ise. @"f you #ant your children to be intelligent$@ he said$ @read them fairy tales. "f you #ant them to be more intelligent$ read them more fairy tales.@ 1e understood the value of reading$ and of imagining. " hope #e can give our children a #orld in #hich they #ill read$ and be read to$ and imagine$ and understand. I This is an edited version of Neil Gaiman's lecture for the Reading Agency$ delivered on !onday 5ctober 27 at the +arbican in 8ondon. The Reading Agency's annual lecture series #as initiated in 6)26 as a platform for leading #riters and thin&ers to share original$ challenging ideas about reading and libraries. Get the Guardian boo& club email
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