{"id":14328,"date":"2017-10-12T09:43:10","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T16:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=14328"},"modified":"2017-10-12T21:28:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-13T04:28:35","slug":"encounters-with-myself-in-which-i-grasp-the-benefits-of-self-serving-non-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/encounters-with-myself-in-which-i-grasp-the-benefits-of-self-serving-non-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Encounters with Myself (in which Pierre Bayard helps me to grasp the benefits of self-serving non reading)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirin lived far enough from Lakeridge High School that she could have taken the bus. But lucky for me, my best friend preferred to walk. I lived half way between Kirin\u2019s house and the school, so each morning we met up at the bottom of Sunny Hill Drive to make our way together. We were both in Honors English, but while Kirin was an avid reader, I had not yet discovered my love for literature. I couldn\u2019t be bothered with Heart of Darkness, Moby Dick, <\/em>or Call of the Wild.<\/em> So each morning, while we made our way to school, I\u2019d ask Kirin about the assigned reading from the day before and she\u2019d give me her summary of what had happened in the book. Then we\u2019d go on to talk about more important things like boys and clothes and movies. Despite my solid commitment to \u201cnon reading,\u201d my grades were consistently as good as (sometimes better) than Kirin\u2019s. Bayard would have been proud.<\/p>\n

How did I do it? Looking back, it seems my methods were similar to those that Bayard describes in his book How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read <\/em>(in which I found myself laughing out loud, ironically reading every word\u2014not because I felt obliged; but, because I was so thoroughly enjoying the authors\u2019 dry wit).<\/p>\n

In short, it was my narcissism that enabled me to succeed in Honors English.<\/p>\n

Bayard repeatedly alludes to the self-serving nature of both \u201creading\u201d and \u201cnon reading,\u201d and I found myself both giggling at and convicted by the truth of his assertions. Indeed, every book I\u2019ve ever read has been integrated into my own \u201cinternal library\u201d where it has taken on a life of its own that may, in the end, have little or nothing to do with the book itself.[1]<\/a> And that includes the books I loved. Bayard even suggests that \u201cthe chances of wounding an author by speaking about his book are all the greater when we love it…there is every likelihood that trying to be more precise in our exposition of why we appreciated the book will be demoralizing for him\u201d (which leads me to believe I ought to refrain from praising Bayard, lest I discourage him) [2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve not authored any books, but I often have a similar experience when preaching. Many a Sunday I have presented a carefully crafted, theologically sound, dynamically delivered sermon, only to have an enthusiastic congregant meet me after the service to thank me for saying something I was not only certain I didn\u2019t say, but am horrified to have attributed to me. One wonders what happens to words between the pastor\u2019s lips and the parishioner\u2019s ears. Like authors, pastors must face that \u201cwhat is said about their books [or sermons] does not correspond to what they believe they have written.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

As a pastor, I feel the author\u2019s pain. But as a reader (and a parishioner as well), I know I am guilty of this. Nevertheless, Bayard would seek to assuage my guilt, suggesting that the narcissistic pursuit of reading is not something to be avoided, but rather embraced. I don\u2019t read for the good of the author, I read for the good of the reader (which, in the case of the author of this post, is me). This is clearest is the final chapter of the final section of the book, where Bayard begins to discuss literary criticism.<\/p>\n

***Spoiler Alert*** Bayard supports criticizing books one hasn\u2019t read!<\/p>\n

Having grown up with the adage, \u201cyou can\u2019t judge a book by the cover,\u201d and being a bit of a literary snob (turns out that once I emerged from adolescence, I discovered I loved reading and pursued a BA in English Literature), I often find myself irritated by people who criticize books they haven\u2019t bothered to read.<\/p>\n

Let me take you back to Evangelical Christian United States of America, circa 1999 (in which I discovered, much to my delight the Harry Potter series). While I found myself enamoured with the magical world that J.K. Rowling created, I was confronted on all sides by Christian friends who were \u201cdeeply concerned about my foray into witchcraft.\u201d They were sharply critical of the book series because, you know, witches are bad. And their criticism of the book was two dimensional and un-nuanced, and could be basically boiled down to the argument, \u201cwitches are bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on that experience (in which I got myself dubbed \u201cthe Patron Saint of Harry Potter\u201d for relentlessly defending the honor of said series in Christian circles), I would have sworn that NO ONE would ever be able to convince me of the merits of criticizing a book one hasn\u2019t read. And then along comes Bayard, with his narcissist-affirming approach to criticism. Alas and Alack, I get it. \u201cCriticism is the record of a soul, and that soul is its deep object, not the transitory literary works that serve as supports in that quest.\u201d [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

For both me and my witchcraft-wary friends, the soul was the object, not Harry Potter. We were both building our inner libraries, constructing our inner worlds, and being truthful to ourselves\u2014through a conversation situated in our communal library. Just as I had done so many times, all those years ago, walking to school with my best friend, Kirin. Books are merely a means of self-discovery and self-identification! It turns out my non reading criticisms of Melville and Conrad not only earned me great grades, they served to shape my very self. Who knew non reading could be so productive?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Pierre Bayard, How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em>, First (New York: Bloomsbury, 2010). Kindle loc 1155.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid. 1323.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid. 1312<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid. 2263.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirin lived far enough from Lakeridge High School that she could have taken the bus. But lucky for me, my best friend preferred to walk. I lived half way between Kirin\u2019s house and the school, so each morning we met up at the bottom of Sunny Hill Drive to make our way together. We were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[477],"class_list":["post-14328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bayard","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14328"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14408,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14328\/revisions\/14408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}