很棒的演講，來自作家Neil Gaiman，關於小說、閱讀與想像力，歐對了，還有圖書館。
http://www.theguardian.com/…/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-r…
「如果你被困在一個不可想像的情況中，一個不愉快的情境裡，讓你受不了的人們在一起，然後有人給了你一個暫時逃避的出口，你有什麼理由不要呢？逃避現實（escapist）的小說做的正是這件事：小說打開了一扇門，讓我們看見窗外的陽光，給你一個空間是你能掌握的，是與你想要在一起的人在一起。（別搞錯，書是真實存在的。）更重要的，當在你逃避的時候，書也可以給你關於這個世界的知識，關於你的困境的知識，給你武器，給你裝備，給你真實的東西，讓你能帶回監獄中。它給你技能與知識與工具，讓你從現實中逃脫。就像托爾金（魔戒作者）提醒我們的，只有獄卒會痛斥逃脫。」
「看看你們四周。我是說，暫停一下，看看你們在的這個房間。我要指出一件事，它太過明顯以至於常常被忘記。我說的是：你所看到的每一個東西，包括牆壁，都曾經只存在想像中。……這個房間與房間裡的東西，還有其他在這棟大樓、這座城市的東西，他們之所以存在，都是因為有人用了想像力，一次一次又一次。」
「愛因斯坦有次被問到，我們如何能讓小孩變得更聰明。他的回答簡單而睿智。『如果你希望小孩變聰明，』他說，『為他們讀一些童話故事（fairy tales）。如果你希望小孩變得更聰明，為他們讀更多的童話故事。』他了解閱讀的價值，想像的價值。我希望我們能給下一代的世界，是他們能在其中閱讀、有人為他們閱讀，能夠想像，能夠理解。」
If you were trapped in an impossible situation, in an unpleasant place, with people who meant you ill, and someone offered you a temporary escape, why wouldn't you take it? And escapist fiction is just that: fiction that opens a door, shows the sunlight outside, gives you a place to go where you are in control, are with people you want to be with(and books are real places, make no mistake about that); and more importantly, during your escape, books can also give you knowledge about the world and your predicament, give you weapons, give you armour: real things you can take back into your prison. Skills and knowledge and tools you can use to escape for real.
As JRR Tolkien reminded us, the only people who inveigh against escape are jailers.
Look around you: I mean it. Pause, for a moment and look around the room that you are in. I'm going to point out something so obvious that it tends to be forgotten. It's this: that everything you can see, including the walls, was, at some point, imagined. Someone decided it was easier to sit on a chair than on the ground and imagined the chair. Someone had to imagine a way that I could talk to you in London right now without us all getting rained on.This room and the things in it, and all the other things in this building, this city, exist because, over and over and over, people imagined things.
Albert Einstein was asked once how we could make our children intelligent. His reply was both simple and wise. "If you want your children to be intelligent," he said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." He understood the value of reading, and of imagining. I hope we can give our children a world in which they will read, and be read to, and imagine, and understand.
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