A Comment on Visionary Tom Ford’s Newest Movie “Nocturnal Animals” by Gary Smolker

CONSTANT CONTACT

I constantly come in contact with young and old men and women (married and unmarried) who are lonely.

That is why I am writing this blog post on the issues raised in Nocturnal Animals.

My Soul

Tom Ford’s newest movie Nocturnal Animals touched my soul the first time I saw it (which was at its North American Premier in Toronto at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival 0n 12, September, 2016).

I haven’t been able to get Nocturnal Animals out of my mind.

“Nocturnal Animals” Is An Interesting Conversation Piece

Nocturnal Animals was the topic of conversation I had with two hip people at a high hip quotient networking brunch I attended in Brentwood, California on Saturday October 22, 2016.

Neither of the two hip people I spoke to at that brunch (which was a hip people only affair) had seen Nocturnal Animals yet, but both told me they plan to see Nocturnal Animals soon.

One of those two people (a writer) asked me: “Why do half the people who see ‘Nocturnal Animals’ hate it and the other half love it?”

The other person (a music composer) told me: “I can’t wait to see ‘Nocturnal Animals.’  It won at the Venice Film Festival.”

The Cause of Heart Break and How To Get Over A Broken Heart

Nocturnal Animals is about two painful real-life topics:

• the cause of heart break and
• how to get over a broken heart.

That is why half the people who see it hate it and the other half love it.

Today, the pain arising out of “heart-break”, out of having a “broken-heart”, and being suffered by the large number of heart-broken people in America while they are trying to get over a broken heart is in everyone in America’s face all the time.

Saturday  NIGHT (October 22, 2016): I Was Presented with One Side of the Pain of Heartbreak – The Woman’s Side

Saturday night, I had a quiet dinner with a gorgeous sophisticated spiritual world-wise delightful woman (GORGEOUS AND DELIGHTFUL) who can’t accept the fact that many American men are marriage phobic.  She discussed with me how frustrated she is by

• the marriage phobic state of mind of dashing physically and mentally attractive men she dates;
• their deep seated widespread fear of marriage has emotionally and romantically paralyzed these men;
•  these men want to see her only once or at most twice a week and to be free the rest of the time; and
• she feels all women her age have been trapped by
• the social hierarchical reality that men are supposed to be dominant which currently exists in America;
• this leads to men being overly competitive,
• MALE OVER COMPETITIVENESS has created a society in which men are commitment phobic,
• men are more committed to making money and to their money than to having a committed relationship;
• this limits women’s options,
• their (a woman’s) limited other options “force” women in America to be manipulative,
• because they are manipulative in their relationships with men, they can not get close to men and men cannot get close to them.
• IT HAS BEEN HER EXPERIENCE THAT ROMANCE IS DEAD IN AMERICA.

Many men pour their money into a nonreciprocal (sexually oriented) relationship with all the women in their lives.

DELIGHTFUL GORGEOUS acknowledges she is a “fool” to still “want” to be with the emotionally paralyzed commitment phobic unromantic men who “stole/steal her heart.”

Painfully, DELIGHTFUL GORGEOUS can’t get over them even though she realizes because of the high value she places on ROMANCE (romantic involvement) she has to move on until she finds a romantic partner.

Sunday NIGHT (October 23, 2016): I Was Presented with The Man’s Side of Heartbreak

• Sunday night (October 23, 2016)  I went to an “Emancipation Party” thrown by a man who just paid his wife a “pretty sum” to get her out of his life.
• He was miserable for many years of the past years he was married to her.
• To his relief she moved out of his house about two days ago.
• At his party, he reported to me: “The morning after she moved out was the first morning he woke up with a smile.”
• Male dissatisfaction with marriage is a widely and strongly held sentiment among the many wealthy men I am in contact with.  For example: The other day, another very wealthy friend of mine asked me: “Do you know why divorce is so expensive?  I replied, “Why?” He answered: “Because it is worth it.”

These unhappy men, feel that their wives are using them.

I tell my male friends and my female friends:

• In order for marital and other personal relationships and business relationships to work all parties have to pull their own weight.
• Each partner has to be genuine, sincere, honest and authentic or their relationship is going to fall apart, it isn’t going to work.

TOM FORD

TOM FORD, the Director writer of the screen play and one of the producers of Nocturnal Animals lives in London.

TOM FORD was previously the design director for Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche, and YSL Beaute before launching his own fashion brand, the Tom Ford brand. in 2005.

TOM FORD never puts a foot wrong.

TOM FORD has a never ending power of invention, an infallible sense of provocation, that distinguishes modern fashion and modern movie making at its best.

In fact I will go as far as to say, with Nocturnal Nights TOM FORD has launched a new type of genre of film: THE HIP FILM.

TOM FORD’S great passion for detail and clear vision of his aesthetic goals are on display in Nocturnal Animals.

 TOM FORD orchestrates the characters’ in Nocturnal Animals experience of their worlds in such a way that every scene in Nocturnal Animals comes down to one single thing: a wonderful, sensual sensory experience.

Every moment one spends watching Nocturnal Nights is charged with erotic frisson.  Every person in the audience is perpetually on the edge of their seat wanting to know and never knowing what is going to happen next.

In short: TOM FORD is the Flaubert of movie making just as he was a visionary in the world of fashion, the Flaubert of fashion.

Admiration

I admire TOM FORD’S persistence and exactitude.

TOM FORD made sure that everything in every scene in Nocturnal Animals is “just so.”

The perfectionism shown in the final product – which is the experience of watching Nocturnal Animals – resonated with my own very personal demand for perfectionism in all elements of my existence.

I admire and love creativity.

I am attracted to people who are sui generus/generis.

TOM FORD, like myself, is a creature of his own invention.

I am all and am totally in favor of glamour and perfection.

So is TOM FORD.

• TOM FORD has a nimble mind.
• TOM FORD takes his work seriously.
• TOM FORD obviously sips from life’s full cup.

Without a doubt TOM FORD would be great company.

That is one of the many reasons I enjoyed Nocturnal Animals so much.

Nocturnal Animals Is A Refreshing Antidote to Tackiness

Like TOM FORD himself, and the clothes TOM FORD has designed, there is nothing tacky about Nocturnal Animals.

Brash Vision

Looking good requires work.

Nocturnal Animals is the latest manifestation of TOM FORD’S brash vision, seer’s confidence, attention to detail, and hard work.

Nocturnal Nights Is The Latest Well Conceived Successful Product of A Provocateur Visionary

As one perfectionist workaholic provocateur visionary to another, I salute you TOM FORD for a job well done.

Flashy Brassy Attitude

I share TOM FORD’S flashy brassy attitude.

Check out the flashy brassy attitude exhibited in my latest creative business venture Dude’s Guide to Women’s Shoes at http://www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com.

Dude’s Guide to Women’s Shoes is a high hip quotient flamboyant hippie fest which appeals to style-aware goddesses.

DEADLINE

I have put myself under the pressure of a self-imposed deadline to finish writing this movie review in my living room before I go to my office this morning.

VICTIMS OF THEIR OWN INSECURITY

Many people are victims of their own insecurities.

That is why many people love and many other people hate Nocturnal Animals.

• Nocturnal Animals does not have a plot.
• Furthermore, Nocturnal Animals does not have a beginning, or a middle, or an end.
• More importantly, Nocturnal Animals is an impeccably well constructed out of order sequence of a series of scenes in the life of a woman who was her own worse enemy – a woman who became the victim of her own insecurities.

 A MOVIE FOR THE BROKEN HEARTED

The ideal audience for Nocturnal Animals are people whose hearts have been broken by their spouse and/or by their lover(s).

People who have not had their heart broken may or may not be able to [fully] appreciate Nocturnal Animals.

• Mature men who have had their heart broken, men who couldn’t get over their broken heart for a long time or for ever, and men who understand this movie, will love it.
• Mature women who have had their heart broken, who couldn’t get over their broken heart, and women who understand this movie, will also love it.

RULES TO LIVE BY & LESSONS TAUGHT

Nocturnal Animals screams out the following rules to live by and teaches the following lessons:

1. Don’t pair up with someone who is extremely insecure.  Such a relationship will never work.
2. People become happy when they let go of the perception of what they are supposed to be.  Be who you want to be.
3. You can’t make a better past.  Abandon all hope of bettering your past.
4. When you enjoy the absurdity in the world it is less painful.  People act absurdly.
5. Your soul must be the center of your universe.  If everybody in a family is not pulling their own weight the family unit is going to fail.
6. You can’t cheat reality.  You are responsible for your own life.  Fake is fake.
7. You can’t walk away all the time.  When you love somebody and they love you, work out your problems, don’t throw away your love for each other.

HAVE THE STRENGTH TO BELIEVE IN THE PERSON YOU LOVE OR ELSE LIVE A BARREN UNROMANTIC LIFE

The fatal flame-out causing flaw of the main character (Susan played by Amy Adams) in Nocturnal Animals is that she (Susan) did not believe in her first husband.

Her first husband had the strength to see in himself and the strength to believe in himself.

But, she (the main character Susan played by Amy Adams) did not have the strength to believe in her first husband or to ability to see the strength of her first husband.

Her first husband was passionately and romantically totally committed to her.

Her first husband wanted to share her life with her and for her to share his life with him.

Her first husband loved her totally.

Susan was not the right person for her first husband to marry because Susan was so shallow she was incapable of having an enduring relationship with him, good man though he is.

• Susan had no empathy.
• Susan had no emotional connection to her first husband.
• Susan was incapable – way to shallow to be able to share intimacy.
• When push came to shove she was not romantically involved with him enough to wait for his career to blossom.
• Susan did not love her husband enough to go through the ups and downs of life with him.
• Susan discovered she wanted a different life style that her struggling your writer husband could provide or that she could provide for herself as an artist.
• When the hormonal rush of good sex was over, Susan thought she saw that he was not right for her.
• Of course she was wrong.  She was not trustworthy, she was not reliable, she valued having money and “luxury creature comforts” over having a committed relationship.

Her beauty, her love of beauty and her love of financial success was a trap.

A WEAK WRONG HEADED UNROMANTIC WOMAN

SUMMARY: Nocturnal Animals consists of a sequence of scenes in the life of an extremely unhappy woman (Susan) who didn’t believe in a man who was her true and first love.

She became the victim of her own insecurities; her wrongheadedness and emotional weakness made her panic – made her runaway with a dashing successful handsome doctor who turned out to be a philanderer, who frequently went on business trips during which he had sex with “glamorous”  women.

In the end, Susan was very much alone and miserable.

The Beginning

Susan and her first husband knew each other and unbeknownst to each other had crushes on each other when they were in high school.

They met up again when they were graduate students.

• He wanted to be a writer.
• She wanted to be an artist.

After they reconnected in graduate school they discovered they were “in love” with each other and got “married” over the protest and against the advice of her mother.

Her mother told her, “He is poor.  You are rich.  You will never have the things or the life style you are accustomed to if you marry him.”

FAKE DOESN’T HAVE THE SAME FEEL AS REAL – FAKE FEELS FAKE BECAUSE FAKE IS FAKE

Nocturnal Animals shows how a child is going to turn out will depend in great part in what their parents instill in them as a child.

Nocturnal Animals teaches the lesson that parents do a great disservice to their children if and when they tell their children, “It is an easy to fall in love with someone who is rich as it is to fall in love with someone who is poor.”

Mature sophisticated worldly people know is not easy to “fall in love” with anyone.

Parents should tell their children,

• “It is completely unsatisfying to be in love with a person who you can’t get close to, to be married to a person who you can’t connect with, and it is pure hell to live with a person who doesn’t care enough about you.
• “People in the United States live in a highly manipulative society.
• “That is one of the reasons there are so many unhappy marriages.
• “When you find someone in your life that you connect to don’t let them get away.
• “Be real about yourself, about who you are and what you have to offer.
• “Marry someone who is genuine, authentic, sincere, honest and values a relationship that is committed to enduring and getting better.”

THE STRONG ONE STICKS TO WHAT THEY BELIEVE IN

Nocturnal Animals consists of a series of scenes in the life of the very distraught Susan (perfectly played by Amy Adams) and has a wonderful ending.

Go see Nocturnal Animals.

VISUALLY

Visually Nocturnal Nights starts with a presentation of totally nude very over-weight women dancing.

The women are completely nude.

We (the audience) see their entire nude bodies as they dance, pubic hair and everything else.

Next the audience sees the main character, (Susan) a beautiful successful art-gallery owner married to her second husband, a dashing handsome young doctor (perfectly played by Armie Hammer), in her Beverly Hills art-gallery.

Our eyes (the audience’s eyes) are directed to a giant sculpture of a overweight nude woman on the floor in Susan’s are-gallery.

The movie begins with a picture of obese women dancing without any clothes on.

Q: Why is that?

A: The opening scene is a hip metaphor graphically delivering TOM FORD’S message, “The rest of the world is laughing at overweight, unhealthy Americans.”

Gary S. Smolker, publisher, movie reviewer, social commentator
Gary S. Smolker Idea Exchange Blog
www.garysmolker.wordpress.com

Gary Smolker, fashion blogger
Dude's Guide to Women's Shoes
www.dudesguidetowomensshoes.com

 

Above is a photograph of Gary S. Smolker taken on October 19, 2016 in his office in Encino, California, USA.

COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Gary S. Smolker, All Rights Reserved

 

An Ode to Books by Gary S. Smolker

INTRODUCTION

When someone reads something (a book, a news report, an email, a letter, etc. etc.)  at the right time in life it can have a profound impact.

When someone learns about something – either through reading a book, publicity, watching a movie. looking/listening to a news report or looking at something someone sent over the Internet or otherwise) it can have a profound effect.

Reading a book and/or a newspaper or the post on a blog or an email or seeing an image on a screen (i.e., on your smart phone or on your computer or your TV screen ) can change your life and the “life” of other people, the life of Polar Bears, the life of “products”, “places”, rivers, forests, mountains, beaches, cities, countries, historical sites, museums, art objects, famous places, famous buildings, politicians, political candidates, celebrities, etc.

The fact that we can now transmit information (text and pictures) anywhere at any time via smart phones is the biggest most impactful technological advance in human history.

The smart phone has had more impact on mankind then the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press, the invention of the steam engine or the impact of any other invention in human history.

Before the invention and widespread use of the smart phone it took relatively speaking “forever” for information to be transmitted long distances to anyone compared to how long it takes to transmit that information to someone else today.

For example, it took a long time for the general public to know of the existence of the Mona Lisa. 

The theft of the Mona Lisa from the most important museum in Paris was of great interest to the public.

What launched the Mona Lisa to worldwide fame was it becoming front page news after it was stolen.

The theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre created an international uproar over its theft in 1911 – pictures of the actual painting were published in the largest circulation newspapers in Paris as well as in leading newspapers all over the world.

This was followed by constant reporting on the investigation of the theft and on the worldwide search for the stolen painting.

People lined up in front of the now blank wall in the Louvre on which it had hung before it was stolen to look at where it had been.

The Mona Lisa had hitherto been known only to the most cultured of audiences, mostly for its prestigious backstory of swapping from one royal collection to another.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa did not inspire crowds to line up in front of the Louvre until after it was stolen in 1911.

Today, thanks to modern communications, and marketing, it is one of the most popular and famous paintings in the world.

It is universally recognized and even worshiped as an object of pilgrimage and long lines at museums.

Reading, Seeing and Thinking Changes Your Brain

You don’t just learn things by reading and/or by seeing life changing images.

Your brain actually grows and becomes better able to process and use information.

• You also become more well-rounded, more refined, more thoughtful, more knowledgeable and more skeptical.
• You acquire new knowledge, new information, new things to admire and love, as well as new things to be horrified about, new things to doubt and new things to be skeptical about.
• You acquire a deeper understanding of all aspects of your own life and the life of other people.
• As you become better “educated” your ability to understand other people’s feelings and motivations increases and you become better able to understand what another person is feeling and thinking.

COMMUNICATION GAME CHANGERS

There is a a clear continuity between word, thought, thinking, comprehending, hearing and listening.

They are each part of the long history of steps enabling man to better communicate, to better express himself, to more fully comprehend what he sees hears tastes and smells, and to become more articulate more persuasive and more able to influence, persuade, lead and control other people.

Its a testament to the extraordinary world we live in that the smart phone, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Google, Uber and the Internet have penetrated deeply into our lives and redefined both how we communicate and how we live.

As a result of Facebook, Google, YouTube, Instagram, Uber and the spread of use of the Internet there has been more change in the last five years than in the previous 55.  For example, if you Google the word health you will instantly see about 2 billion results.  If you call Uber you will quickly get a “low cost ride.”

 

• During the past five years the value of communications has dramatically gone up, the cost of communication has dramatically gone down and the number of communications (i.e., Google the word health) has exploded.
• As the cost of obtaining information continues to decline sharply and the cost of communicating information continues to decline, more and more of us are being given a glimpse of the ideas, forces, and trends that are now shaping our future.
• However, in many cases, information we randomly access on the Internet has not been edited or peer reviewed by unbiased experts.
• Sometimes reading such material can be as useful as reading unsolicited (junk) mail.
• We should ask ourselves: How valuable, how reliable is the information we are receiving, is the “information” that we have obtained beneficial?

It is no accident that the demand for instant information has gone up dramatically as the price of obtaining that information has gone down.

That is why you can get about 2 billion results if you Google the word health and why you can shop for almost anything on line.

We are all swimming in an ocean of information.

Those of us who own a smart phone have become an integral part of a multitude of interconnected systems of information.

We are now suffering from electronically transmitted information overload.

Most of us have at least 50 unread emails in our computers or on our smart phones at all times.

Some of us have over 100 unread emails on our computers and smart phones.

DOWNSIZING

I recently downsized by moving from a house I was living in (a 4,000 plus square foot two-story four bedroom three bath single family home with beautifully landscaped front and backyards in a prosperous section of Los Angeles) with an ornate designer swimming pool to a 1,100 square foot two bedroom two bath one story condo without a swimming pool in what has been called the armpit of the San Fernando Valley.

TRAUMA

I spent the months of February, March, April and May, 2015 looking for a new place to live.

Every aspect of looking for a new place to live was a traumatic experience, including looking at places offered for rent and looking at places offered for sale which were posted on the Internet.

One of the issues I had to resolve  during my search for a new place to live was the human need issue in my life of how important to me are my books.

All the places I looked at, except one, did not have enough room or the right kind of room for my bookcases and/or for my books or the right floor plan or the right ambiance/”feeling.”

My love of reading had created in me a need to find a house where I could have all the books in my home library at my fingertips.

When I finally saw a place for rent that had enough room for my books as well as an agreeable floor plan that would allow me to feel comfortable bringing my books and bookcases there, I immediately knew that it was the place for me.

Coincidentally, after I moved in, I discovered this place has beautiful views from eight of it’s ten windows and that it has three balconies.

I didn’t notice the windows or balconies when I first personally inspected place where I now live with my real estate agent because I was blown away by what happened on my one and only viewing before I made an offer to rent this place.

THERE ARE NO EMOTIONLESS ENVIRONMENTS

My real estate broker fired me while he and I were looking at this place because he couldn’t stomach the fact that I told the owner I loved this place while the owner was showing this place to me and to my real estate broker.

The minute I told the owner I love this place, my real estate broker immediately went outside while I was still telling the owner how much I loved this place.  As he left, my real estate broker told me to come to his car when I was done talking to the owner.

A MIRACLE

I surrendered to the inexplicable power of needing to find a home for my books without counting the cost.

Why did I do that?

Rabbi Jechezkel Landau, the eighteen century Chief Rabbi of Prague, said “G-d performs miracles to make a statement.”

If that is the case, I believe G-d made it take me four months for me to find the place where I now live to compel/provoke/stimulate me to write the “Ode to Books” below, to present my feelings to you about how important I feel books through which we exchange and transmit ideas and information are to everyone in this computerized information age.

AN ODE TO BOOKS

How odd it must be to go through life believing that a book is a book. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some are to be chewed and digested in full or in part. Books inspire a man to embrace the world or to flee it. The literary man can never have enough books. The eyes of a reader are eyes, that do not just take words in, but confront and challenge their worthiness. For me, books are not just words on a page.

The pages of a book can influence me and you in ways we never comprehend.

Reading can change you and me; they can make us do things without realizing it.

Books bring things, ideas and people to life and open our eyes.

What we read can be more real to us than events in our own lifes.

When reading I sense that the various words on the page are fighting for control,
for control of me.

Now, I never read a page without sensing that various people and forces are fighting for control of the words, for control of me.

HOW I THINK

It is interesting to me to note what I remember and what I soon forget, what I see and/or hear and what I comprehended.

ATTRIBUTION

All the thoughts about books expressed in the ode above are discussed in “The Last Bookaneer”, a recently published book, written by Matthew Pearl.

In “The Last Bookaneer”, Matthew Pearl has one of his fictional characters say, “A man’s library opens up his character to the world.”  A man’s books disclose what is (and/or has been) of importance to him.

QUERY:  How many people do you know who have a copy of the Compact Edition of the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language in their home?  I do because I “love” words and what to know what they really “mean.”

 

Without My Books I Would Be A Body

Deprived of Its Soul

I have spent the last three weeks arranging and rearranging all the books in my new home on bookshelves.

Each of my books represents a topic or subject I was interested in at the time I purchased it and at the time I read it.

Some times it has taken me ten or twenty years to get around to reading one of my books.

I don’t just read books; I write in them; I underline words and phrases and ideas in them; I highlight things of interest to me in them; I use a multitude of colors for underlining and for highlighting.

I tag pages with different colored and different sized tags.

I take (copy) statements that interest me that I have read in a book and put those statements in notebooks.

I use those statements when I talk to people, when I write to people, and when I think about things.

I have many such notebooks.

Those statements (ideas, thoughts, theories, arguments, bits of information) have become part of me.

WHAT REALLY MATTERS

During the process of moving out of my four thousand plus square foot home and looking for a new place to live, I lived in a hotel for a little over a month.

During the month I was living in that hotel, people urged me to quit looking for a new place to live and to “just rent someplace.”

They didn’t/don’t understand how important my books are to me.

Those people did not understand that books are a part of me.

Figuratively speaking, I am part book, part man.

UTOPIA

To have what you have written read by the right people – to modern writers – is positively utopia.

To have a film seen and understood is positively utopia to a filmmaker.

Today, for some people, films have replaced reading books and for other people watching films has stimulated their curiosity which in turn has increased the amount of reading and writing they do.

It is basic human nature that to love to be understood and appreciated.  That is utopia.

THE POWER OF A COMPLIMENT

For example, I read an article on miracles (why G-d creates miracles) written by Rabbi Lazer Gurkow and sent him an email after reading that article in which I complimented Rabbi Gurkow.

Rabbi Gurkow wrote back: “Wow.  Thank you for that.  A true compliment inspires greater effort and deeper power.”

Copy of email exchange below:

“Wow. Thank you for that. A true compliment inspires greater effort and deeper powers.”
R Lazer

On 2015-06-28 7:52 AM, “Gary Smoker” < gsmolker@aol.com> wrote:  In my post I made reference to your reference and “thought” about miracles which I thought was a wonderful statement.

You write fascinating articles.

As a writer you build suspense and then present one surprise twist and turn that open and then further opens people’s minds.

As a Rabbi you fulfill the vision that a Rabbi is a spokesman for G-d.

Of course, G-d isn’t boring and neither are you.

I mimic what you write because

you are a fascinating and exciting teacher.

Prometheus brought mankind fire.  

You bring mankind light by answering the question, WHY?

Sincerely

Gary

Sent from my iPhone

Gary S. Smolker

On Jun 27, 2015, at 7:57 PM, Rabbi Lazer Gurkow wrote:

I am flattered.

Thanks for reading my work.

R Lazer

On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 4:47 PM, Gary Smolker <gsmolker@aol.com> wrote:Rabbi,Thank you for contributing to my “Ode to Books” which was posted on my blog www.garysmolker.wordpress.com a few minutes ago. Gary

I AM WHAT I READ

Books are a part of me.

I would no more “voluntarily” live where I would not have my favorite books at my fingertips than I would voluntarily cut off one of my arms or voluntarily shrink out of existence.

If it is true that you become what you love, shocking as it sounds to me, I am part book and part man.

We have recently learned that almost half of the world’s population has access to the Internet: 3.2 billion people.

In the year 2000, this figure was somewhere around 400 million.

Try to imagine what would have happened in the past 15 years if technologically speaking we were still where we were in the year 2000.  That would be a world without Google, without Facebook, without YouTube, without Instagram, without Netflix, without Uber.

I agree with Alvin Toffler’s statement, “In the future illiteracy will not be defined by those who cannot read and write, but by those who cannot learn and relearn.” but would modify it as follows,” In the future illiteracy will not be defined by those who cannot read and write, but by those who do not use smart phones, computerized research and read books and those who do.”

As access to information and learning become more and more widespread information and learning becomes more relevant each day.

• In such a world, information needs to be read seen and listened to attentively, needs to be discussed thoroughly, needs to be studied carefully and needs to be evaluated critically.
• For those purposes books are more relevant today then ever before.

Each information processing and information transmission revolution that has taken place since the 1995 introduction of the graphics user interface Web browser for the Internet has made the truths and facts found only in books more important and more relevant.

Copyright © 2015 Gary S. Smolker