I am currently reading a series of novels in which the importance of an old, lost book cannot be understated. I have often been intrigued by the importance of books in fantasy, and this often goes in hand with the importance of history in the genre. Most conflicts in fantasy are the results of ancient conflicts come again; it seems to be a genre trope. Things old and forgotten, especially books that contain hidden and/or lost knowledge, are often vital to the heroes overcoming in the end.
So, as a motif, how does this work? What is symbolic or thematic about old books? Notice, I am focusing here on old books, not new ones, for no one ever goes seeking after a newly-written tome of hidden knowledge. This is, in many ways, an interesting inversion of the facts of the modern world in which we live, for we tend to prize new knowledge over old. Old things–books in particular–don’t have the same cultural relevancy and importance as they used to. The men and women of the Renaissance, for example, saw themselves as direct heirs of the Roman Empire, and held themselves as one and the same people. That is a bit simplistic, but it is a far cry from the modern world in which we worship change and the New, rather than honor tradition and history and roots. We see ourselves as very different people than those who fought in WWII, let alone those who lived over a thousand years ago.
