The Books of the Future

Emma Bull quoted Jonathan Lethem (“The Ecstasy of Influence: A plagiarism”):

A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. The character of an era hangs upon what needs no defense.

C.S. Lewis in his Introduction to Sister Penelope Lawson’s translation of On the Incarnation by Athanasius wrote:

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.

Lewis’s advice to read the old books is good, and it is advice that I follow. It occurs to me, however, that in addition to books from the past, I would like to read books from the future. Those might be even better at correcting our blind spots.