Knowing how to read and write is no longer a privilege for a few. If in the past this was something restricted to the elites, today, despite the 14 million illiterates that still exist, as the IBGE points out, what can be seen is an advance towards the universalization of literacy. However, even with the progress in relation to the number of literate people and with the expansion of libraries across the country, Brazilians rarely frequent this space dedicated to reading.
In a study carried out in the first half of 2012, by Instituto Pró-Livro, entitled “Portraits of Reading in Brazil”, the data revealed by the research are alarming. It is indicated that 75% of the Brazilian population has never stepped into a library, a fact that is directly linked to vision predominance of people on the practice of reading: something dull, boring, difficult, not seen as a pleasurable practice or fun. Possible explanations for this phenomenon permeate historical and cultural issues, which directly reflect on social behavior.
Among the aspects that contribute to this are a school system that, by dealing with subjects and contents in a fragmented way, it forms socially and politically immature students, as the sociologist Edgar Morin (2000) points out. Students end up creating a relationship with the books that is not based on the pleasure of reading itself, but on the obligation of studying and of research on diverse content, which, not necessarily, students are able to relate to their daily lives while individuals. Therefore, reading loses its characteristic as something stimulating by expanding knowledge, as well as its potential as a pleasurable entertainment practice, becoming a tool (hard and painful for many students) to instill theories, theses, formulas, among other things, as preached by many traditional standards of pedagogy and teaching with a background contentist. Thus, the library is seen as a place of study and research in which attendance would be compulsory and not spontaneously, as among those who like this environment.
However, the idleness or emptying of libraries is not only due to the lack of empathy built over the years of study due to this pedagogical aspect. This is a cultural characteristic of Brazilian society, a society in which, historically, as stated above, reading and access to books were restricted to elites. Furthermore, a society of a capitalist nature like the one we live in ends up having work as a central activity in the everyday life of the common man, relegating intellectual life to another plane. Therefore, the long hours between work and commuting not only take up time, but also impel individuals to a need for so many more hours of rest, a fact that configures a present reality among the class hardworking.
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Added to this, there is the trap of easy access to information over the internet. With its summarized contents and many other audio and video resources, it seems to be more attractive than the knowledge that can be obtained only by reading books. Thus, the result is a dislike for reading, a preference for superficial content of the world wide web and an alienated vision of the reality in which this same individual inserts. This does not make new technologies or the internet itself enemies of reading and knowledge, on the contrary, they are excellent tools. However, it is the existence of superficial content, from unreliable sources that can compromise the search for knowledge. The habit of reading requires a more intense cognitive and interpretation effort than just watching or listening to content.
Thus, what can be inferred about the non-use of libraries is that a series of factors interrelated ones contributes to the vast majority of the population not attending these spaces. As is well known, in societies where reading (and education in general) is valued, predominance of a sharper critical sense, then of a more engaged civil society, more participatory. After all, as the popular saying goes: “for a good connoisseur, a drop is a letter”.
Paulo Silvino Ribeiro
Brazil School Collaborator
Bachelor in Social Sciences from UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
Master in Sociology from UNESP - São Paulo State University "Júlio de Mesquita Filho"
Doctoral Student in Sociology at UNICAMP - State University of Campinas
