Reading to improve the world according to Millás
Writers are those beings who write so that the world can dispose at will of the pleasure of reading. Juan José Millás is a little man who understands reading as the practice of tasting what surrounds us. The conference given on October 8 at the César Manrique Foundation had the name “Reading and life”. And that’s what the Valencian writer did: he walked with the audience trhough the reasons why he thinks reading is so important.
In his own words, “you don’t read to be a reader, and yout don’t write to be a writer; yor read and write to understand life “. That is why, when Millás sits down to write, he doesn’t do so with the desire of having fame or posterity, but to put in writing those thoughts that, when read again, acquire a second meaning. This idea is what the author exploited in his lecture, especially directing it to the way there is to ‘teach reading’ (if that is possible) in the Spanish educational system.
Millás gave the example of Mexico. In the North American country they have detached the reading of the curricular system and they have transferred it to the extracurricular activities. Reading should not be an obligation. “Children can not read El Quijote in their twelve or thirteen years old, just as they can not read Joyce’s Ulysses,” the writer said in his presentation. Millás observations in this regard can be summarized in that reading is not an activity that can be forced, let alone directing and choosing the readings of the youngest. “The way to teach literature in class, where the first thing is to know the names of all the characters and make a detailed summary of what you just read does not work,” he explained. “Moreover, I still do not understand how it is possible that there is still a subject called Language and Literature, as if they were the same thing”.
Read to improve the world. “If I take an ibuprofen, I don’t cure you the headache, but if I read, I make the rest of the people better.” Reading and writing makes society better. The vision of Juan José Millás on reading and life was at once motivating and enlightening.
Future of journalism
In the question time Millás touched a various number of subjects. From the readings that he would recommend to students, going through the qualitative differences between novelists, storytellers and poets to the importance or not of the spelling. However, one of the ideas that circles the reader’s head is the announced death of paper journalism.
Millás believes that in Spain it is very good journalism, especially in the local press. He, who reads four newspapers every morning, understands that there are three possible paths for paper and ink journalism. The first is that it disappears. The second is to stay as it is. And the third, and perhaps more original, is that they end up editing newspapers only on weekends with higher quality content and with a different and deepened treatment of information. “When I buy newspapers every morning I know more than the newspapers because we have a constant flow of information throughout the day; Newspapers must change.” Word of journalist, writer and reader
