Unmasking the Magician
Have you ever seen those television programs that reveal the hidden secrets behind magic? It begins with a masked figure hiding in the shadows of the set. Around him are devices seen on magic stages around the world. The hidden secrets of magic, the intrigue and illusion, will be lost on those that watch this exposé. There is a disclaimer that announces that once seen, once experienced, we will never be able to tak
e back what we know, the understanding of it will remain with us. The the culture around magic and our ability to speak about it will change in ways we don’t understand. While reading Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, I kept thinking that he was revealing secrets that I could never take back. He states that, “a book stops being unknown as soon as it enters our perceptual field” 1 The magic is gone. The magician was unmasked as a regular guy; the books felt to have been devalued as regular references. What do we do now that the culture of reading and the mystic of an author that was able to get a book published has been revealed to be a tool for our own creative undertakings? Like the magician that gives away the secrets to all the non magic people, I felt as though Bayard gave us the keys to the closet of writers.
Bayard says our minds are divided into libraries, “Being cultivated is a matter not of having read any book in particular, but of being able to find your bearings within books as a system.”2 He claims that we all desire to be cultured and civilized. What that truly means is that we are able to navigate the knowledge and texts of a communal agreed upon library. This Collective Library,3 as Bayard calls it, shapes and defines the culture we navigate in. He sees books themselves as a, “system, …to be able to locate each element in relation to the others.”4 This cultural collective library is only important when we see it through the lens of how our society is able to engage in conversation about it. Can we be challenged by it, have it push us into conversations, produce new ideas that move us from our here and now to where we want to be?
The last book we read gave practical ways to skim and get an overview of the book. As helpful as I found Alder’s book5 on practical ways to skim and read, I appreciated Bayard‘s approach of giving us a cultural understanding of why we can “not read” a lot of books and still be in discussion with others. My dissertation is about understanding these collective libraries from one culture and being able to translate it to a second culture, specifically regarding our understanding of developing leaders within a Christian context. How does one talk about what is important in one culture without having their culture, their own libraries, influence the development and learning of those we are leading? This reminded me that crossing cultural boundaries also means crossing cultural and societal interpretations of those boundaries. My challenge will be from my perspective how can I see ways to teach those of another perspective without allowing the cultural influences of my perspective to dominant and taint the outcome. We need to find a way to create a third culture that represents the intersecting point between our cultures. At this point, I am not sure how to do that.
The Inner Library, as Bayard calls it, or inner book is created by an individual’s experience of the Collective Library.6 There are some books I eat up and am passionate about and others that I put in my digital library or on my wish list because I want to be that kind of guy that reads those types of books. I loved the idea that it is an active engagement with the books rather than a simple non reading.7 I want to be well read without actually reading everything I am suppose to read. Bayard says, “Relations among ideas are far more important than the ideas themselves,”8 This idea of changing our relationship with books is radical and difficult for those that have been taught that the author is the teacher and we are the lowly student. We often have been reminded that we can never fully understand the master and are never to unmask the magician. “We must profoundly transform our relationship to books”9 , and “Praise it without going into detail.”10 gives us an understanding of how Bayard views the books in our collective library. He shifts the master/ servant model upside down, allowing the books to be ones we are to manipulate.
Self- assurance is my Gallop Strength Finders number one strength.11 I find myself speaking confidently assuming I am right. So Bayard liberates me to be creative and assertive in my conversations with others. I can freely and unashamedly talk about books that I haven’t read with creativity and confidence. “…people know that talking about books you haven’t read is an authentically creative activity”12 I look forward to, as Bayard has done in our reading, being creative and confidently talking around the proverbial water cooler.
Some might think Bayard is too cavalier in his use of books, yet I see his use of creativity and its relationship with cultural conversations as a point that clarifies who I want to be. Not only having the freedom to discuss and engage others on topics beyond my expertise, but also the task of seeing culture as a limitation that sometimes needs to be overcome. Overcome in order to get at that heart of truth, rather than letting truth be filtered through our own cultural context.
1Bayard, Pierre. How to Talk About a Book You Haven’t Read. Kindle. New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. Kindle Locations 283
2Ibid, 262
3Ibid, 280
4Ibid, 262
5Adler Mortimer J, and Van Doren, Charles How to Read a Book: The Classic guide to Intelligent Reading. (Simon and Schuster, 2014).
6Bayard, Pierre. How to Talk About a Book You Haven’t Read. Kindle. New York: Bloomsbury, 2010. Kindle Locations 988
7Ibid, 289
8Ibid, 225
9Ibid, 2325
10Ibid, 81
11Self-Assurance is similar to self-confidence. In the deepest part of you, you have faith in your strengths. You know that you are able — able to take risks, able to meet new challenges, able to stake claims, and, most important, able to deliver.
12Bayard, Pierre. How to Talk About a Book You Haven’t Read. Kindle. New York: Bloomsbury,2010. Kindle Locations 2340
About the Author
Greg
Greg has a wife and 3 children. He has lived and work in Asia for over 12 years. He is currently the Asia Director of Imanna Laboratories, which tests and inspects marine products seeking US Coast Guard certification. His company Is also involved in teaching and leadership development.6 responses to “Unmasking the Magician”
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Greg,
Your use of “magic undone” is a good comparison to the Bayardisms throughout his book. Like you, I like his abstract associations suggesting our minds are like libraries of books and all we have to do is find our bearings, get a reference point, stay on the periphery, and watch for how we connect and relate to ideas. I think if we are focusing on our dissertation problem, then Bayard’s techniques will zero us in, with laser like precision, to our intended bibliographic targets.
Creating a “third culture” is an interesting concept for testing cross-cultural boundaries. If I understand your intent, using a Bayardistic approach of speaking to you as the author without reading your book, your third culture would be like a safe place for two different cultures to enter, relate, establish relationships, where you can socially and theologically experiment without the problem of losing face or damaging your testimony.
I think you are going to do great in your 3rd culture concept. In all of my cross-cultural experiences, is our differences that make the difference. Armed with the light and love of Christ, a friendly smile, and humble body language communicates more than words.
Stand firm,
M. Webb
Hey Greg, I love all of you cultural observations from this book. Especially this: “We need to find a way to create a third culture that represents the intersecting point between our cultures. At this point, I am not sure how to do that.”
I’m not sure how to do that either, but I wondering do you have some ideas of what that might look like?
Hey Greg, I love all of your cultural observations from this book. Especially this: “We need to find a way to create a third culture that represents the intersecting point between our cultures. At this point, I am not sure how to do that.”
I’m not sure how to do that either, but I wondering do you have some ideas of what that might look like?
Hi Greg!
I agree with your statement, “I appreciated Bayard‘s approach of giving us a cultural understanding of why we can “not read” a lot of books and still be in discussion with others.”
This is going to be a very helpful tool the next three years! I look forward to the journey with you…
Greg,
I, too, resonated with your idea of third cultures. It strikes me that our cohort and this blog is really a third culture space. We all come from different cultures, traditions, and ministries, and in the blogosphere we are create a new cultural reality. It’s really quite remarkable that despite slow blog interfaces, different time zones, and interacting by writing, we are able to create a new kind of relationship here.
Greg,
Great discussion on the cultural libraries. The section speaking on Bohannan wanting to prove Hamlet was universal in introducing it to the Tiv tribe was a great example in the book. I would be interested in hearing how you are working to intersect the two cultures you are living. A western mind intersecting with Eastern thought is fascinating. Hope all is well in China!