"Reading is seeing by proxy" (Spencer). Is reading a substitute for experience?

Robert Southey has written a poem in which he speaks about the companionship books have given him. He says:

My days among the dead are past,

Around me I behold,

Where'er or these casual eyes are cast,

The mighty minds of old:

My ne'er failing friends are they,

With whom I converse day by day.

The poet says that books are his never-failing friends; in their company he derives delight, and seeks relief and solace while in sorrow. The poet's words in praise of books show that reading is a panacea for personal ills as well as for empathetic understanding and for vicarious pleasure.

Wise men all over the world have extolled the value of reading. Bacon has this to say: "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man," Lamb loves to lose himself in other men's minds. That is to say, he likes to enjoy himself in the company of books, which as Milton has described, are 'the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life." In the words of Emily Dickinson

There is no frigate like a book

To take us lands away,

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry.

Spencer's observation, "Reading is seeing by proxy", underscores the importance of reading in a man's life. He sees the value of reading as a means to experience what the writer of a book has experienced himself. That is to say, the reader sees what the writer has seen personally from the book written by the latter.

Books are of different kinds; some give us useful information and knowledge; some give us the personal experiences of their authors; some are imaginative renderings of experiences. What we call creative literature belongs to the third category. When we refer to reading, we have invariably in mind the reading of imaginative literature. In other words, by `reading' we mean reading novels, plays, poems, short stories, travelogues, autobiographies, etc. Imaginative literature is certainly different from books that are intended to pass on matter-of-fact, useful information and knowledge. The second category of books dealing with personal experiences such as autobiographies and travelogues is more akin to imaginative literature; for the books belonging to this category are 'the precious life-blood of master-spirits'. Both categories of books, namely, imaginative literature and literature based on personal experience, give us what the writers have 'seen' for themselves.

The word 'seen' is placed within inverted commas because seeing is experiencing not only through our physical senses but also through our mind's eye. What the poet imaginatively conceives is his experience; perhaps what he imaginatively conceives is based on personal experience. Wordsworth's poem on the daffodils or his sonnet, "Upon Westminster Bridge" are imaginative renderings of personal experiences. The point is when we read imaginative works we are lost in the worlds created by the writers and experience with them their experiences. Our own experiences are only second-hand, and therefore, vicarious. This is what Spencer means when he says, "Reading is seeing by proxy'.

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Source: www.englishdaily626.com