Windmills & Giants

This is an excellent overview (published in The Times Online) of Pierre Bayard's essay "How to Discuss Books One Hasn't Read." He mentions the stigma attached to "skimming" or "speed-reading" in supposed "academic" circles:

For example, “it would be almost unthinkable for professors of literature to admit – what is after all true for most of them – that they have merely skimmed Proust’s work”.

I would like, in the interest of full disclosure, to admit that I skimmed Proust in college. Load off my chest. Anyway, if anyone can track down a translated copy of “Paradoxe” (or could translate the French; anyone speak French?) I would love to read the full text.

The final quotation in the overview is the reason I bring it to your attention:

"in order to . . . talk without shame about books we haven’t read, we should rid ourselves of the oppressive image of a flawless cultural grounding, transmitted and imposed [on us] by the family and by educational institutions, an image which we try all our lives in vain to match up to. For truth in the eyes of others matters less than being true to ourselves, and this truth is only accessible to those who liberate themselves from the constraining need to appear cultured, which both tyrannizes us and prevents us from being ourselves."

This is important to remember. If you are forever forced to read things that you don't want to read, discuss topics that you have no interest in, these pastimes can become a chore. I have littered the reading list for this class with words like "suggested" and "possible" because I want you to read things that are interesting to you. The discussions will be richer, and the class will be better if you bring in things you are currently reading. That being said, if I do say, "Hey guys, take a look at this," keep an open mind. Maybe the reading will become a new interest. We never know.

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