Is there anything new under the sun? When I searched for the saying I found that the original came from the Bible: it appears to be a phrase adapted from the Book of Ecclesiastes;
"the author complains frequently in the book about the monotony of life. The entire passage reads, "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun." (1)
Whether you think that there is or there is not anything new under the sun, it influences your attitude to change and perception of what is going on in the world.
At different times some books get more attention than others. The nice thing about literature is that it is timeless. What you read and learn - from Dickens, Alexander Dumas, Scott Fitzgerald or Mark Twain -- often offers a universal truth. But we tend to forget what they were about or we haven't read them. Some are in favor of the literary canon and others not, and the truth lies probably somewhere in the middle: some books are a "must read."
When searching the internet for The Great Gatsby and Allan Greenspan I found this statement:
F. Scott Fitzgerald ultimately not only defined the Jazz age, but unmasked the corrupting influence of wealth."(2)
I have not read the book myself, but I would have liked to, and wonder how it would have influenced me. Sometimes it is hard to imagine how books influence people.
Leadership is another example, I currently read the three musketeers by Alexander Dumas "Father". How did D'Artagnan become the leader of the group?
Literature is important, even more in the often grey and rough business. Is it possible that people start reading again? And is that due to the time we currently experience?
(1) - http://www.bartleby.com/59/1/nothingnewun.html
(2) - Allan Greenspan, The Oracle behind the Curtain (through books - Google, page 160)
© 2009 Hans Bool
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