I think it is one of the most ancient things, a means of transmitting knowledge and culture to others that has been with us since the Stone Age beyond the invention of writing itself.
"One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another... proof that humans can work magic."
I think it is one of the most ancient things, a means of transmitting knowledge and culture to others that has been with us since the Stone Age beyond the invention of writing itself.
"One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another... proof that humans can work magic."
- Carl Sagan.
Perfect example. Sagan himself has passed away but we still have his words to link us to him and his visions of the world.