Saturday, January 20, 2007

The power of a writer

"A few thousand words from Rachel Carson and the world took a new direction". The few thousand words are known as 'Silent Springs' and I got to know about this book through a course I am taking this semester.
Rachel Carson in her book, writes about how the indiscrimate use of DDT after the WWII in several countries was effecting the ecological balance and how this chemical was slowly poisoning the food chain. DDT till then was 'concidered' to be a wonder chemical which could solve all problems and bring about the 'green revolution' wherever it was used. Several people had conducted and published research on the negetive impacts of over-use and the caution that should be taken while using DDT, but not untill this book was published that people actually began to question something that had till date been promoted as a medicine with no side-effects.

The whole idea that a book got the people to take notice and raise their voice against the negligence of the governement, resulting in national level policy changes in USA is not unique.
What I really found to be amazing is that the author, who was a biologist and environmentalist, decided to deal with the issue by writing a book about it. She could forsee the power of a book in invoking masses to action.

2 comments:

Prashant Das said...

Hey, it sounds as if some scholar from an Ivy league corner is taking a new perspective on something too obvious for othres!!
;)
I remember my time when I used to prepare for 10th board exams. I was into books.... and the subject that impressed me most were History and Hindi literature... something that I seem to be completely ignorant about now.... I was into them... and though my score in the two hardly contributed to my gaining place in the state merit-list; I learnt something too critical from those readings... the power of effective writing; or 'communication' to be precise!
That learning is what you have just taken down beautifully here.
Thanks, Minu... for reminding me of some a resolution that I took around 10 years back...

Well, should this be treated as a harbinger of your further advancements in writing skills?

:) Cheers!

Minu said...

glad to be of service!!