How can you talk about a book without reading it? When I first started reading Bayard\u2019s book, I wondered if this was a tongue and cheek piece with a twist of dry French humor. Or maybe Bayard is the antithesis, the mortal enemies of Adler and Van Doren? After all, Adler and Van Doren suggest that every book worth reading must be read according to their proposed in-depth reading methodology, while Bayard is suggesting that it is not necessary to ever read a book!<\/p>\n
However, the further I got along in the book I realized that it was neither tongue and cheek piece nor are Adler and Vandoren Bayard\u2019s mortal enemies. How to Talk about A Book You Haven\u2019t Read<\/i> is Bayard\u2019s admonition for all who are interested in knowledge and life to experience the total breath and width of the whole corpus of written knowledge and to understand where each book fits into that corpus. It is also a philosophical treatise.<\/p>\n
Bayard is not advocating the absence of reading. He is promoting (1) the understanding that a person cannot possibly read\u2014word for word\u2014every book that is necessary to read and (2) the importance of locating a book within the corpus of all knowledge. I agree. For when you understand the place of the book on the grander scale, you can already know enough about a book to talk about it. In this way, non-reading is not the absence of reading but a different kind of reading\u2014one that skims, listens to others or even makes up (creates) things about a book they have not read word for word, (the “create” part is problematic). In Bayard’s world what matters most is the context of the book within the spectrum of knowledge and the methodology he proposes to get out of the uncomfortable situation where you find yourself having to talk about a book you haven’t read.<\/p>\n
Baynard explains his methodology and develops his arguments within three broad categories and the 12 chapters within those categories. There is no need to list the 12 chapters, but the divisions are helpful in understanding the author’s argument. He begins by discussing the Ways of Not Reading; he then explains the various types of situations (confrontations) in which a person might find themselves needing to discuss a book they have not read. Finally, he discusses the personal impact of being a \u201cnon-reader\u201d and how to navigate those treacherous waters.<\/p>\n
In Chapter 4, \u201cBooks You Have Heard Of,\u201d Bayard encourages with a simple methodology. If you have not read a book and need to talk about it, \u201cread or listen to what overs write or say about it.\u201d (Loc. 531) I think most people have practiced this. This advice applies to movies as well.<\/p>\n
The Alfred Hitchcock movie \u201cThe Birds\u201d was released in 1963. In 1968 it was broadcast on television for the first time. I was ten years old, and there was no way my parents were going to let me watch it. Not wanting to be \u201cout of the loop,\u201d at ten years old my fear of missing out (FOMO) got the best of me. I knew that on the bus ride to school I could pick up everything needed to talk about a movie I hadn\u2019t seen. All I needed to do was listen. No one would ever know that my parents wouldn\u2019t let me watch it. By the time I got to school, I could talk about \u201cThe Birds\u201d like I had watched it myself. I was even able to give a 10-year-old analysis of why the birds didn\u2019t attack Melanie as she drove away in the convertible. Unlike Bayard I didn\u2019t have to make up or \u201clie\u201d about the story (Loc. 2107), I knew all I needed to know for that time. When I finally saw the movie\u2014I was 30 something\u2014I realized that Mitch and not Melanie was driving the car and that the children were in the car with them. Maybe the kids on the bus hadn\u2019t seen the movie after all!<\/p>\n
Below the surface of How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read<\/em>, is a philosophical construct dealing with life, reality, and existence. Oddly enough, one of the reoccurring themes of the book is \u201cguilt.\u201d Bayard speaks of the \u201cunconscious guilt\u201d one has by discussing a book one has not read. (Loc. 1535) For this, he brings Freud into the conversation and the use of childhood memories to illuminate this guilt. (Doc 715) In the end, Bayard equates the ability to talk about a book without ever having read it to the act of creativity, which for many is \u201ctheir first encounter with the demands of creation.\u201d (Loc. 2352) His part in the act of creativity in this book are his, \u201crecounting of events that, literally speaking, are not a part of the books [about which he was speaking].\u201d (Loc 2107) According to Bayard, \u201cin the end, we need not fear lying about the text, but only lying about ourselves.\u201d (Doc 2297)<\/p>\n How to Talk About a Book You Haven’t Read,<\/em> is entertaining and interesting. Though I don\u2019t disagree with some of Bayard\u2019s methodology, I do disagree with the philosophical underpinnings. Is it so terrible to announce that you have not read a particular book? Are we so motived by the pressures of life and a FOMO culture that we must resort to \u201ccreating” so people will think we are full-fledged members of the intelligentsia? (I Cor 13:11) Is it possible to “say what we know and know what we say?” How to Talk About Books You Haven\u2019t Read: An interesting read or non-read!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How can you talk about a book without reading it? When I first started reading Bayard\u2019s book, I wondered if this was a tongue and cheek piece with a twist of dry French humor. Or maybe Bayard is the antithesis, the mortal enemies of Adler and Van Doren? After all, Adler and Van Doren suggest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"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":[901,477],"class_list":["post-9519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lpg7","tag-bayard","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9519","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\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}