Class 12 English Lesson 13: Essay: On Libraries by Oliver Sacks Literature Section

 

Lesson 1 Essay: On Libraries by Oliver Sacks

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About the Essayist

 

Oliver Sacks was born in 1933 in London and was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford. He completed his medical training at San Francisco’s Mount Zion Hospital. Dr. Sacks spent almost fifty years working as a neurologist and wrote several books--including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Musicophilia, and Hallucinations--about the strange neurological predicaments and conditions of his patients. The New York Times referred to him as "the poet laureate of medicine," and he received many awards in his life.

Gist of the Essay

“On Libraries” is written in praise of intellectual freedom, community work, and the ecstasy of serendipitous discovery. Among the titans of mind and spirit shaped and saved by libraries was the great neurologist, author, and voracious reader.

Summary of the Essay

“On Libraries” is written in praise of intellectual freedom, community work, and the delight of unexpected discovery.  The essayist says that when he was a child, his favorite room at home was the library, a large oak-paneled room with all four walls covered by bookcases and a solid table for writing and studying in the middle. It was here that his father had his special library. His mother had her favorite books in a separate bookcase in the lounge. Medical books were kept in a special locked cabinet in his parents' surgery (office/clinic). For the essayist, the oak-paneled library was the quietest and most beautiful room in the house and he learned to read early, at three or four, and books, and the library, are among his first memories.

On the whole, he disliked school, sitting in class, and receiving instruction; information seemed to go in one ear and out of the other. He could not be passive-he had to be active, learn for himself, learn what he wanted, and in the way which suited him best. He was not a good pupil, but he was a good learner, and in Willesden Library and all the libraries that came later-he roamed the shelves and stacks, had the freedom to select whatever he wanted, to follow paths which fascinated him, to become himself. At the library he felt free -free to look at the thousands, tens of thousands, of books; free to roam and to enjoy the special atmosphere and the quiet companionship of other readers, all, like himself, on quests of their own.

As he got older, his reading was increasingly biased toward the sciences, especially astronomy, and chemistry. St. Paul's School, where he went when he was twelve, had an excellent general library, the Walker Library, which was particularly heavy in history and politics. When he went to university, he had access to Oxford's two great university libraries, the Radcliffe Science Library and the Bodleian, a wonderful general library that could trace itself back to 1602. It was in the Bodleian that he stumbled upon the now obscure and forgotten works of Theodore Hook, a man greatly admired in the early nineteenth century for his wit and his genius for theatrical and musical improvisation (he was said to have composed more than five hundred operas on the spot). He became so fascinated by Hook that he decided to write a sort of biography or "case history" of him. "case But the library he most loved at Oxford was their library at the Queen's College. It was in the vaults (rooms having arched roofs) of the Queen's College that he gained a sense of history and his language.

He first came to New York City in 1965, and at that time he had a horrid, pokey little apartment in which there were almost no surfaces to read or write on. So he longed for spaciousness. Fortunately, the library at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he worked, had this in abundance. He would sit at a large table to read or write for a while and then wander around the shelves and stacks. The essayist opines that in the library we may be reading our books, absorbing our worlds, and yet there prevails a sense of community, even intimacy. While meeting people in a library, and handling and sharing books with them, we develop a kind of camaraderie (friendship and trust) among us.

 

But a shift was occurring by the 1990s. He would continue to visit the library frequently, sitting at a table with a mountain of books in front of him, but students increasingly ignored the bookshelves, accessing what they needed with their computers. Few of them went to the shelves anymore. The books, so far as they were concerned, were unnecessary. And since the majority of users were no longer using the books themselves the college decided, ultimately, to dispose of them. He had no idea that this was happening not only in the AECOM library but in college and public libraries all over the country. He was horrified when he visited the library a couple of months ago and found the shelves, once overflowing, sparsely occupied. Over the last few years, most of the books, it seems, have been thrown out, with remarkably little objection from anyone.

He felt that murder, a crime that had been committed destruction of centuries of knowledge. Seeing his distress, a librarian reassured him that everything "of worth" had been digitized. But he does not use a computer, and he is deeply saddened by the loss of books, even bound periodicals, for there is something irreplaceable about a physical book: its look, its smell, its heft. He thought of how the library once cherished "old" books and had a special room for old and rare books; and how in 1967, searching through the stacks, he had found an 1873 book, Edward Living’s Megrim, which inspired him to write his own first.

Understanding the text: Answer the following questions.

a.      Where could the author be found when he was late for lunch or dinner?

The author is none other than the greatest neurologist and literary figure Oliver sacks. There was Oliver’s favorite room, which was very quiet and beautiful in the house and it was the room of the oak-paneled library. His parents had libraries in the house. So, whenever he was late for lunch or dinner he could be found absorbed in a book in the library.

b.     What are his first memories?

Oliver was so inquisitive that he was absorbed in a book in his favorite room of the library. He even used to get late for his lunch and dinner as he was found to be too absorbed in the books. He learned to read early in the morning at 4 or 5 o’clock. The beautiful oak panel library and books are his first memories.

c.      Why did he dislike school?

He disliked school because he didn’t like to obey the instructions from the teachers. He gained better information and knowledge exploring books in the libraries than that from the school. He used to get excellent lessons from the libraries before the teachers taught in the class. He was not a good student but was a better learner. Thus, he disliked school because he liked to learn himself in libraries being free to choose books of his own choice.

d.     What did he feel about the library?

He felt free when he is at the library. It is because he is free to choose any books of his interest out of thousands of books. The atmosphere of the library was so comfortable and quiet that he roamed through the shelves and wandered by the books kept in them. He also used to enjoy the quiet companionship of other readers all like him in the same quest.

e.      Why was he so biased about sciences especially astronomy and chemistry?

He was biased about science especially astronomy and chemistry because for two reasons – The first reason was that all the children used to dream of being astronauts and exploring space at that time. So he must have wished to know about it. The second reason was that he got older and he only needed those books which would support his studies.

f.       Why did he become so fascinated by Hook?

He became so fascinated by Theodore Hook because he found the books written by him in the Bodleian Library. Hook was greatly admired for his wit and his genius theatrical and musical improvisation. He was the greatest star in the nineteenth Century for what he had done. He had composed more than five hundred operas on the spot.

g.     Describe the library at Queen’s College.

The Queen’s College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. It has a magnificent building designed in a form of a palace by Christopher Wren, who was a great architect. Beneath the college, there were underground large rooms which were the library. There were several bookshelves. There were heating pipes attached to the walls and corners. The design of the library was classical. The books of original prints and editions from Gesner to Darwin were available.

h.     Why did the students ignore the bookshelves in the 1990s?

The students ignored the bookshelves in the 1990s because they had access to digitalized books. The access to books from their computers made them rarely go to the shelves. The books were no longer of consideration. They felt more comfortable with the new form of reading books on their electronic devices than going to the shelves in the library.

i.       Why was he horrified when he visited the library a couple of months ago?

He was horrified when he visited the library a couple of months ago because the books from almost all public libraries were thrown out off the shelves and were digitized. Unfortunately, he didn’t know how to use the computers. The books, the shelves, and the libraries were gone one by one and he was deeply saddened by the loss of centuries of knowledge. Therefore, he was horrified.

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