???It seems like the close of an era: the end of getting your hands dirty reading black-on-white newsprint and going to the library to borrow books. As people read novels and check the latest front-page news on mobiles now, print seems to be a thing of the past.
???But Wednesday night in the Center for the Arts, best-selling novelist and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen delivered good news to aspiring journalists, writers and avid news fans as a part of the UB Distinguished Speakers Series.
???The end for books and newspapers is not approaching, in her eyes, which have seen the rise of women in the news, as well as the good and bad of the business.
???Words will retain their power forever, added Quindlen, a life-long writer and reader who expressed throughout the lecture a passionate love for books that has kept her going in her career.
???"I spent some of the best years of my life trying to analyze the reasons why we read because I believe with all my heart that reading made me what I am today," Quindlen said. "It's made me a better writer, a better citizen and a better mother."
???Quindlen has written columns for the New York Times about her family, and is currently writing bi-weekly, nationally syndicated columns for Newsweek.
???To a full house of readers and fans, Quindlen presented a white sheet of paper that read, "Call me Ishmael," recognizably the first three words of Herman Melville's Moby Dick at the beginning of the speech.
???"Look at this like a 3 year old would; this is really at some level, nothing," Quindlen said in reference to Melville's introduction written more than 150 years ago. "This is also a miracle ... some of us know what this means - that it's the first-person introduction by a fictional ship's hand to the story of Captain Ahab in his manic pursuit of a great white whale."
???The speaker shared her awe at the fact that decades after a book is written, patrons are still buying and reading works such as the unceasing success of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
???Inspired by being on a college campus, Quindlen stated that despite the current economic situation that has forced budget cuts in school systems and libraries, nationally, people should work to get the money back where it belongs.
???"I so hope, given the economic strains that [we've] faced as that we never forget that [the] growth, prosperity and innovation that has been the hallmark of the United States often begin on our college campuses," Quindlen said. "We cannot afford to starve them in any way, shape or form no matter how tight our budgets may be."
???By being descriptive and anecdotal on stage, she brought characteristics of herself usually seen on the back page of Newsweek to life.
???"Just think about some of the recent Julys in the history of this country; how boys and girls of America went gaga over a single book... how they waited in line and cradled in their bony little chests and carried in into their bedrooms," Quindlen said, referencing the Harry Potter series.
???Supporting another love of hers, Quindlen tackled an issue that has lingered in the subconscious of aspiring journalists: the fate of print news.
???The speaker tackled a widespread myth that newspapers of today are headed to their demise. Quindlen told audience members, when a chance arises, to look through newspapers of the past that did not include news that affected everyone. News of the past was exclusive and boring, she said.
???"It is not as interestingly written as the paper today and it will not have covered all the communities of this community. The New York Times, the gold standard of this business, ignored the poor and people of color for too many years," Quindlen said. "And you can look at the microfilm of the early '50s and see stories about the arrest of deviants in bars of Greenwich Village... homosexuals."
???The past of newspapers is not as glorious as people remember, she said. In an all-encompassing realm of newspapers and news stations, Quindlen states there is a need to become a more self-educating audience.
???"You need to focus on the differences between Fox News and PBS, and the differences between opinion columns and straight stories, and the differences between blogs and traditional medium," Quindlen said, telling audience members to read and differentiate between sources of news.
???Quindlen closed the night with the story of Stan and Julie Patz, whose 6-year-old son went missing without a trace in 1981, to push her point over the edge.
???Etan Patz became the most famous missing child in New York City in a time before pictures on milk cartons, Amber Alerts and the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.
???Quindlen learned to incorporate humanity and compassion in her writing through talking with the Patz family, she said. As her voice echoed back from the silent audience, she disclosed the fate of Etan Patz and how Stan has coped with the grief.
???"His son has been declared legally dead by the courts. He believes Etan was murdered by a convicted child molester... but, Stan clips every single story about this case and he keeps every single television clip," Quindlen said. "Because he was hoping that some day when that boy walked in through the doors in their apartment that he could hand him that stuff and say 'this is what happened while you were gone.' "
???In this story of a child going missing and the family coming to terms with his disappearance, Quindlen discovered something during a phone conversation with Stan when she asked him why he collects clips to that day.
???" 'To create a history for Etan,' " she recalled. "The closest thing that man has to the body of his son is the body of all the work. And if that doesn't make me believe that writing is at the root of everything then nothing will."
