This book, authored by Stephen Graham, recounts his travels in the north of Russia when the last Tsar was still in power. It's the story of Nature and the People; of life where the largest communities were around 15,000 people and were usually only in the hundreds. Below is an excerpt:
'Because the peasants have no books to read, they are all forced to read the book of Nature. They do not hear the imitation of the nightingale, therefore they listen to the nightingale itself. They do not look at "real life" as depicted in novels, therefore they look at real life without the novels. If the moujik had books, he would build higher, larger houses, so that he might have a room into which to retire and read and have silence. But as it is, he lives in one room, and likes to see all his family about him and as many of his relatives and friends as possible. He rejoices to give hospitality to pilgrims and tramps bringing stories of other lands and other provinces. He rejoices in keeping open house and in visiting. To such an extent has hospitality gone that not only is open house kept, but open village. There is a whole system of festivals throughout the North, and the villages take it in turn to keep open house for the inhabitants of all the villages round. All this is due to the fact that the peasants have what we should call spare time. Because they do not read, they have time to enter into many more relations with their fellow-beings for spare time, after all, means spare life. As I have said before in Russia you may study conditions of life which were once the conditions of England. You can see what England has left behind. Here in the life of this mediaeval peasantry is a veracious picture of our own past. It is more instructive than any book.'
Now, obviously, I do not praise illiteracy but I do think Mr. Graham spells out in this book of his travels that we are missing a lot of things around us because we are constantly in the 'glow' of the written, televised, and advertised world. The book is not aglow with the wonders of the Russian peasantry - indeed you will see corrupt officials and the inevitable police and soldiery with a few robbers here and there - but it is alive with the way life was when time was not kept to the minute - or even the hour; when life was about giving and being given in return; when life was about a community. Give it a look if you wish; it's an enjoyable read.
EDIT: adding a few words
'Because the peasants have no books to read, they are all forced to read the book of Nature. They do not hear the imitation of the nightingale, therefore they listen to the nightingale itself. They do not look at "real life" as depicted in novels, therefore they look at real life without the novels. If the moujik had books, he would build higher, larger houses, so that he might have a room into which to retire and read and have silence. But as it is, he lives in one room, and likes to see all his family about him and as many of his relatives and friends as possible. He rejoices to give hospitality to pilgrims and tramps bringing stories of other lands and other provinces. He rejoices in keeping open house and in visiting. To such an extent has hospitality gone that not only is open house kept, but open village. There is a whole system of festivals throughout the North, and the villages take it in turn to keep open house for the inhabitants of all the villages round. All this is due to the fact that the peasants have what we should call spare time. Because they do not read, they have time to enter into many more relations with their fellow-beings for spare time, after all, means spare life. As I have said before in Russia you may study conditions of life which were once the conditions of England. You can see what England has left behind. Here in the life of this mediaeval peasantry is a veracious picture of our own past. It is more instructive than any book.'
Now, obviously, I do not praise illiteracy but I do think Mr. Graham spells out in this book of his travels that we are missing a lot of things around us because we are constantly in the 'glow' of the written, televised, and advertised world. The book is not aglow with the wonders of the Russian peasantry - indeed you will see corrupt officials and the inevitable police and soldiery with a few robbers here and there - but it is alive with the way life was when time was not kept to the minute - or even the hour; when life was about giving and being given in return; when life was about a community. Give it a look if you wish; it's an enjoyable read.
EDIT: adding a few words