My entire readership of Andy Hartley has commented that reading is a kind of OK second-best to real life when real life is not possible. Wow! So many implications, so little time! The first question which springs to mind is: when and why would real life not be possible? Like it or not, we are in real life all the time - " This is It!". What seems to seperate us from "real life" is a failure of awareness. We forget we are alive. I am convinced that it is our sacred duty to know we are alive at all times, that in the realisation of consciousness lies the true purpose of human existence. This seems easy, but is in fact incredibly hard. Try it. It should be possible to read (even) Proust and at the same time be aware of one's being there reading. I look forward to comments from my readership on their practical experiments in this field.
Sincere inquiry into the question of why we read is likely to prove a salutary experience. At one level it would appear obvious that we read for any number of different reasons: to obtain necessary information, to satisfy intellectual curiosity, to enjoy being entertained, to escape (from life?), to acquire "erudition" etc. etc. At a deeper level, however, I have a sense that is almost an organic function. Reading is food for the associative mind, a necessity for its proper functioning. There are different grades of food in the same way that a horse, say, can eat straw, hay or oats. "Oats" grade reading is what we would have to call, for want of a better expression, serious literature. But in the same way that a horse can founder if it eats oats but is not made to work, so, serious reading without the effort of conscious awareness can lead to intellectual constipation and a separation from real life. Reading should not be an alternative to life, but an enhancer of life. But it requires reading the right books in the right way. Quite a programme!
Sincere inquiry into the question of why we read is likely to prove a salutary experience. At one level it would appear obvious that we read for any number of different reasons: to obtain necessary information, to satisfy intellectual curiosity, to enjoy being entertained, to escape (from life?), to acquire "erudition" etc. etc. At a deeper level, however, I have a sense that is almost an organic function. Reading is food for the associative mind, a necessity for its proper functioning. There are different grades of food in the same way that a horse, say, can eat straw, hay or oats. "Oats" grade reading is what we would have to call, for want of a better expression, serious literature. But in the same way that a horse can founder if it eats oats but is not made to work, so, serious reading without the effort of conscious awareness can lead to intellectual constipation and a separation from real life. Reading should not be an alternative to life, but an enhancer of life. But it requires reading the right books in the right way. Quite a programme!
posted by asbo at 2:04 AM
1 Comments:
Admittedly I was being a bit provocative last time. I seem to have spent a large part of my life reading and continue to do so. So why do we read? To approach it from the other side: why do we write? We write to set down our thoughts, ideas, experiences, emotions (or just to tell a good story) so we do not forget them, to give them form and maybe to share them with others. So when we come to read we share that and gain an inssight into others. Our own experience and direct knowledge is inevitably limited by the time, place and circumstances in which we live. Reading extends and expands our experience, albeit vicariously. Inevitably not as vividly as the real thing, but in its infinite possibilities in a very enriching way. Sometimes, indeed, in a more enriching way than some of our repetitive daily routine.
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