How could you like that book? at NY Books Tim Parks says, although various authors are successful and competent, he cannot understand the attraction to some writing and how people commit to so many pages read.
I buy a copy, and halfway through I toss it away, literally, at the wall, in intense irritation. How can people like these stories, […]
I live under the constant impression that other people, other readers, are allowing themselves to be hoodwinked. They are falling for charms they shouldn’t fall for. Or imagining charms that aren’t there. They should be making it a little harder for their authors. […] I begin to wonder how people can be so wholehearted in their enthusiasm.
I feel that way more about movies, television and newspapers, but occasionally books too.
It’s not that he hates literacy I’m sure or literature nor is he probably a snob. There’s a frustration at disconnect when he can see others connect. Is it them or me? How can subjective be so very subjective?
What nourishes at this time and place won’t reach in another context, time, place, mood. That’s head knowledge.
Experiential knowledge is seeing people enjoy and also wanting to enjoy. I suppose a solution would to be vicariously happy for the person and drink in their enthusiasm rather than focus on the impassibility of sharing the experience from the inside.
He continues,
Reading other peoples’ takes on Primo Levi, or Murakami, or David Eggers, and comparing them to my own, I get some sense of who we all are and what we’re up to. Sometimes this turns out to be far more interesting than reading the book itself.
If this is the case, then, the important thing would be, first, really to understand one’s own reaction, to observe it with great care; and, second, to articulate it honestly, without any fudging for fear that others might disagree.
That sounds sound.
Silent, people may consider you a fool but open your mouth and they have grounds for proof, or however that expression goes.
To say something specific is to allow debate. People back or people back up in a way that they don’t for generalities.
Sometimes it feels like I’m colour blind in a non-colour-blind world but either way colours are being seeing differently a text.
How does that text meet a need? How do people stay on for the ride? Are expectations and gratification at low thresholds or they are seeing totally different things? It’ a crazy-maker to debate superiority of aesthetics. The act of communication is an act of persuading, marketing, saying this, omitting that. A statement of which values you value.
At OpenBook in an article on Meet the Presses and the bpNichol chapbook award tomororw, Nicholas Power says that reading is about finding affinities, inwards and outwards:
Read what’s being published, especially in the magazines and books of people to whom you’re sending your work. Support the work that you like and even the work you don’t like but that you know is breaking new ground. Buy books and respond to those writers. Go to readings and see what’s going on. You don’t have to be part of a scene but you can find out where your affinities are in the many worlds of writing.
Reading is to find a comfort zone, stretch it and tone it. It’s an exercise regimen really.