Sunday 1 April 2012

Blogspiration (8)

blogspiration
Blogspiration is hosted by Saz101 and GrowingUP YA


For this week's Blogspiration, we have been asked by the lovely hosts to answer another question. This week, the question is:


What is your favourite literary quote?


I looked at this question, and was stumped. I didn't have one! I had a favourite excerpt (which I will share at the end), but not a quote! So I decided to have a look around at various sites for some help. I decided on this lovely one:


"When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved." - The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain


Source: Lit Quotes

This is just so awesome! I just read it and thought, "YES! THIS! YES!" Where would we be:

1. As a human race, without education? I know a lot of us get a great education, but there are people in third world countries that live without an education, as we are constantly reminded by charities (that wasn't a complain, I'm all for these charities). It's just unimaginable. And...

2. As us, this communty of bloggers and readers, without wonderful stories to take our breath away, to take our mind off of the mundane, and to go on awesome journeys and adventures? I wouldn't know you, or you, or even you. And you wouldn't know me. Books have opened so many doors for me in so many ways, and one of them is the great conversations and friendships I now have with readers and fellow bloggers.

It just makes you sit back and think, doesn't it?

Ok, now that other excerpt I mentioned earlier. I think it's quite thought provoking, because all history could be seen this way, but also quite amusing, because it's typically Belgarath, the character who is narrating.

"There’s a peculiar dichotomy in the nature of almost anyone who calls himself a historian. They all piously assure us that they’re telling the truth about what really happened, but if you turn any competent historian over and look at his damp underside, you’ll find a story teller, and you can believe me when I tell you that no story-teller’s ever going to tell a story without a few embellishments. Add to that the fact that we’ve all got assorted political and theological preconceptions that are going to color what we write, and you’ll begin to realize that no history of any event is entirely reliable – not even this one." - Belgarath the Sorcerer by David Eddings, p693.

For example, two historians from two different countries that were involed in some event once upon a time might have wrote a book about that event, yet the story those history books tell may very well be different. I find that idea just completely fascinating! Who's history is true? Which history is fact? Which can we trust? It's so thought provoking! And this is coming from a high fantasy prequel "autobiography".

Please feel free to leave your links to your own Blogspiration posts! I'd love to read them!

12 comments:

  1. I love it love it! And I completely love the idea of it!! Education IS important!! In my country the are debating to make the postgraduation course payable, which will mean that many people won't be able to go study because they won't have money to pay for the study and I am so angry at the sistem. Pissed off even. So yeah, I completely agree with you :) Awesome blogspiration!!

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    1. Oh, that's not so great! But we have to pay for our undergraduate study in the UK here. I just meant basic education - up to high school. We need that basic education, everyone does!

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  2. AMAZING! It sucks that education isn't being supported in the U.S If you're going to cut back, don't cut back education! It's a long term investment, these kids will be running the country one day, so it's the last thing that should go. Sadly, they're cutting so much education just to support giant manufacturing companies. Grr

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    1. I'm afraid I don't know much about US cuts, but that sounds really sad. Is this education up to high school, or past it?

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  3. Oh goodness... Jo... this is becomin a recurring event this week's Blogspiration, but you gave me CHILLS with the Mark Twain quote... I've somehow never read it before and... wow. Juts wow...

    And then you just went and quoted Belgarath. Of course you did. I'm tearing up. I swear, Dumbledore and Belgarath share a very special place in my heart. They've become my mentors... I... oh, I just love this. THANK YOU!

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    1. Aww, that's awesome! I'm so glad the quote worked it's magic! :)

      Oh no! I wasn't intending on making people teary! But yes, Belgarath is amazing, and I love him lotsly :)

      I'm so glad my post had such an impact!

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  4. OMG YOU QUOTED BELGARATH!!!! <33333!!!!! Squeee!! I've only met one other person who shares a love of these books and it's Saz above me! They are some of the BEST fantasy ever written and I can't even tell you how many times I've read them. I had to buy all new paperbacks, I wore them all down! LOL.

    Now that I'm done shouting and screaming in happiness, I'm going to stalk you in every way possible on the interwebz.

    PS: Great quote!

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    1. WOO! Another Eddings fan! AMAZING to meet you! ;)

      Haha, thanks for following me on Pinterest and Formspring! Glad you liked my post!

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  5. Oh my gosh, YES. I LOVE this post, Jo! <3

    So, so true about education. I think so often we take that for granted. Education is more a 'right' here than a privilege. And to think some people would give anything just to LEARN. It really makes you take a moment to truly appreciate what we have.

    And the Belgarath quote is SO true and like you said, it's kind of fascinating. Who's to say everything we've learnt about our history isn't a twisted recount of what really happened? One tiny detail is changed and then another and another and you're never really going to get a biased, truthful account of what really happened. Which is kinda frustrating in a way haha.

    Also, you are amazing. That is all.

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    1. Aww!! Thank you so much! You're amazing too! :D Sorry, had to reply to that part first. Now on to the rest...

      I know, right? I mean, if you take edication down to it's very basics - knowing how to read and write and do simple maths - how many people are there in the WORLD who simply can't do any of them, because education is simply unavailable. And that on it's own is bad enough for life in general, but then I think about me and my love of reading, and I feel so sad for all the wonderful books these people are missing out on! It makes me kind of love audio books, though I don't like them for myself.

      EXACTLY! I used the Belgarath quote in a report for my Fiction and History class, as I thought it worked well when our tutor discussed how German and English history books about World War II are actually different. We all know how bad Hitler was, but I doubt we were perfect little angels. It's just... what do we believe?

      On a related but slightly different note, in an interview, an actress was saying when she was researching for a part in a crime drama, she was told by a lawyer or judge or something, if two people agree on every detail on an event, then they're lying - because we all remember things differently. So no-one is ever going to be "right" about anything, because each individual's version of events will be different to everyone else's. Always. Fascinating! I just love it.

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  6. HOMG! Mark Twain and David Eddings really knew their shiz! :D

    Seriously though, I absolutely love these quotes! Especially the Belgarath one because it's sooooo true!

    Thanks, Jo! Very thought-provoking!! :D

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  7. Kristin - For some reason, blogger won't let me "reply". Sorry!

    Thanks, I'm so glad you liked it! The Belgarath one is just awesome, it really does make me think!

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