What does it mean to take in symbols with our eyes in order to understand how our ears would hear them if someone spoke them to us? It sounds ridiculously awkward when I say it this way.
And I wrote “sounds ridiculously awkward when I say it this way” when I’m here literally saying nothing for you to hear.
As noted in the last post, reading is a complicated way to acquire information, and recent to human culture. What we call literacy: the ability to read and write, is considered essential in many cultures.
What does it mean to read?
I’ve read innumerable books in my life from first word to second word to last word, and can’t close them and recite them from first word to second word to last word. Maybe there’s someone who can. I recently read a book, A Lion for Lewis, aloud to my granddaughter, from the first word to second word to last word, I don’t remember much about it at all. We read it together for the experience. I know most books from reviews, lectures, conversations with literate acquaintances, and from skimming. At the same time, I can recite long passages from Homer’s Odyssey, which, of course, was composed to be spoken. I recommend Emily Wilson’s translation. Her rendering of the opening line: “Tell me about a complicated man, Muse.”
Indeed.
Then you can read How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read by Proust scholar, psychoanalyst, professor of literature, literary critic, Pierre Bayard. Better yet, read his interview with Deborah Solomon, art critic, biographer, journalist. The book is 208 pages. The interview is a single page. Solomon captured the gist, and Bayard himself would applaud you understanding his book without reading it.
Or maybe just this excerpt:
Solomon: “You write in your book about Montaigne, who confessed to having a poor memory and to forgetting about books he himself had written. Which leads you to ask: If we read a book and forget that we read it, is that the same as never having read it?”
Bayard: “I think between reading and nonreading there is an indeterminate space that is quite important, a space where you have books you have skimmed, books you have heard about and books you have forgotten. You don’t have to feel guilty about it.”
I’ve read How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read twice from first word to second word to last word as I found it so compelling. I continue to visit with it. What’s more, I’ve read a book Bayard recommends in How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read: Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities, 1600 pages from first word second word to last word. It took me eight months of one brilliant paragraph after another.
Not incidentally, the American, Henry James, authored more than two dozen widely regarded novels and around a hundred works in other genres. I say authored because he didn’t write. He dictated his compositions to at least three partners called amenuenses, who captured his spoken words and read them back to him. I nonetheless can talk about a book or two James, the author didn’t write. I’d probably skim and read a review or two to refresh my understanding of them.
Reading is complicated. Try applying phonics to sound out paradigm or love.
Warm regards,
Francis Sopper
REFERENCED IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
interview: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/magazine/28wwln-Q4-t.html