BellaOnline Forums Education History Old Texts

Too often old texts get pushed aside for the latest and greatest piece. Yet many of these books contain a wealth of information.

What stops you or anyone for that matter from reading the books from yesteryear?

Rebecca, I actually prefer the "old texts" because my passion is writing and researching about the past in order to bring it forward and help instill pride in and respect for the Ancestors.

Thank you for bringing this issue to light.

I love them, too, but so many avoid them. I was wondering if people considered the information inside too outdated to read (which I think we could both argue is absurd).

Well...some of it is "outdated", but it gives us a better understanding of the people and traditions of the past and how it affects today.

"The influence of the past affects today and what the future holds." PDBurns

I love the old texts. Sometimes it's just as important to see that mindset of the "olden days" as it is to see today's mindset. I even have some old shorthand books from 1918 and 1927 that have Presidential speeches to transcribe. What a trip! I have a really old English history book. It encompasses about 400 years in mini paragraph style. I haven't read much of it as the pages are slightly brittle.

I think a good exercise would be to read these old texts and research what has changed or what is incorrect.

Sara, as you pointed out, it is important to see the mindset. To us, a period might be black and white. When you read from those of that period, it becomes much more complex.

Have you noticed that the use of language in the "old days/texts" was much more correct and polite? The use of language today has been, like everything else, streamlined to save time. This is true in America anyway. In Europe, it seems like they retain much of the correct usage and polite words --they use full, detailed sentences rather than short, cropped sentences.

The lost art of speaking/writing is plain to see when one reads poetry by the classic poets, or books like "House of Seven Gables", "Wuthering Heights", and "Jane Eyre".

As for texts, like hstory books, much of the information is outdated or mis-interpreted,, but still gives us the mindset of people in a particular region. I notice this especially now that I am reading "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy.

You are right about the language. I was thinking that recently as I read a passage out of The Fall of the House of Usher. Most of those words are not even used today and I think 90% of the population wouldn't know what they meant.

About the texts... It is the mindset that I think you glean the most from them. Do you really want to know how a ruler was viewed whether right or wrong? Don't read the books of today. Read the ones of his contemporaries. That is where that can be truly seen.

That is so true, Rebecca.