March 14, 2001
There has been a lot of talk lately about what it means to be well-read. A lot of talk. No, I mean a whole lot of talk.
Most of the discussion has centered around what makes a person well-read, but the majority of my mail on the subject has focused on the why. Why do I care? What's the point of reading all these dead white guys, especially if you've already gotten your degree?
I have a lot of reasons, but I can probably break them down into three general categories.
I don't like feeling stupid.
Would you laugh at me if I told you that this recent bout of learning came from rereading the Betsy-Tacy books? Last month I reread the last books in the series (to go along with reading the recently republished Winona's Pony Cart, Carney's House Party, and Emily of Deep Valley). As I was finishing up Betsy and the Great World and beginning Betsy's Wedding, it hit me for the first time that these books were set during the same time period as A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.
I felt so stupid. I've read the Betsy-Tacy books half a dozen times, and I've read A Tree Grows In Brooklyn at least ten times, but I never made that basic connection. I think of the Betsy-Tacy books as old-fashioned books, like the Laura Ingalls-Wilder books. (Actually, I think all three authors were writing at the same time, although the Ingalls books are set about a generation earlier.) ATGIB is just a book set in the early twentieth century, back when people lived in tenements and boys wore spats and women like Sissy were considered whores. It's not set in olden times.
But Betsy is older than Francie. When World War I breaks out, Betsy is in her early twenties and living in Europe. Francie is a teenager working in New York.
That realization may not seem like a big deal, but it made me realize what a lazy reader I am, how little I know about American history, how much I have to learn.
And my original plan was to read history. I just got a little sidetracked, that's all. The main point for me is to not be a lazy reader, to stop taking the easy way out. This plan has more to do with the state of my brain than with specific pieces of knowledge I might be lacking.
I like feeling like I "get it."
This may be the snob in me rearing her ugly head, but I love it when I pick up a literary or pop cultural allusion. Actually, I'm pretty hopeless with the pop culture because I don't listen to the radio or watch MTV or read many bestsellers. But I occasionally get the literary references, and I love it when it happens. It makes me feel smart, or at least clued-in. Even the easy ones give me that feeling, like the one I mentioned the other day, about the way the creation imagery in The Magician's Nephew is straight out of Paradise Lost, with the animals rising horns-first out of the earth.
I may feel stupid when online journalers start talking about Terry Pratchett or whatever, but I did get extra points on an American Lit test in college because I knew the source of this quote, from The Sun Also Rises:
"You've a nice friend, Jake."
"He's all right," I said. "He's a taxidermist."
"That was in another country," Bill said. "And besides all the animals were dead."
That's from The Jew of Malta, by Christopher Marlowe, and the original goes like this:
Thou has committed --
Fornication: but that was in another country,
And besides, the wench is dead.
And I know that because it's quoted at the beginning of T.S. Eliot's Portrait of a Lady, which inspired me to read the whole play because it's such a great line.
You know, I'm trivializing this. It isn't just that I like picking up English geek points here and there. Really, I have this vision of the written word as one endless progression, everything interconnected and referencing back and forth, and I love that. I feel that if I can just read everything, or at least everything of importance, then I'll finally understand the big picture, I'll be able to assimilate the knowledge of the people that came before me, and then I can go ahead and die.
Plus, it's comforting. It helps to recognize the guideposts, the references that tell you what the author has read and what he thinks is important. It gives you a common ground.
I'm doing penance for college.
Then there's this one. I can't tell you how depressed this makes me. Fifteen years ago, when I was too young and ignorant and (let's face it) boy-crazy to appreciate it, I had my choice of several fine English programs, and I chose UCLA, which was a pretty good one. And I blew it -- not so much grade-wise but with actual learning, with the classes I chose, with the way I rushed to get out. I chose an American Lit emphasis because it allowed me to get out sooner, since some of the courses could be doubled up with the ones I had to take for my Poli Sci major. I worked too many hours and had to choose my classes around my work schedule, instead of the other way around. I didn't take a single elective after my second quarter. I took classes that I thought were stupid, and instead of dropping them and taking something better, I just didn't go to class. I didn't take creative writing classes because the people who were advising me told me they were a waste of time, and I listened to them. I didn't take fun classes or challenging classes or classes that caught my interest; I just took the classes that fit and filled requirements. I have nobody to blame.
Now I want that knowledge, I want that opportunity back, and it's too late. I don't have the money or the credentials for that, and it makes me want to cry. (In fact, it did make me cry, for about ten minutes until I realized what a spoiled brat I am.) So now I have to do this on my own, and I have to be hard on myself, because otherwise I won't follow through. I have a very long history of not following through, and it's nobody's fault but my own.
 I'm doing pretty well. I'm way ahead of schedule in this reading program I've set out -- I'm reading more than twice as much as I'd planned to read. I was originally supposed to read only four of Shakespeare's plays (Othello, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, all taken from the comprehensive reading list for this master's program), and then all that's left for the rest of March are a few of Donne's poems and most of Paradise Lost. So I decided to reread some Shakespeare I haven't read in a long time, and add in a few things I skipped altogether. But it's still not going to carry me through the end of the month.
So I've added a few things. I joined a book club over at Chicklit, and I'll be reading portions of The Prose Edda (Norse mythology) next week. I think the next two books planned for that club are Anna Karenina and the Beowulf translation I've just read. Anna Karenina is one of my favorite books, so I'm looking forward to that.
I've also decided to do something I've been meaning to do for a long time, but intended to put off until after graduate school. I'm going to tackle my unread books, one at a time, in alphabetical order. (Yes, I alphabetize my books, and that's after a general sorting according to subject and theme. I have thousands of books; some order is necessary.)
It's embarrassing to have this many books when there are so many of them that I haven't read yet. Some of the books I haven't read are Jeremy's, but that doesn't mean I don't have to read them, too.
I've made rules for myself for the duration of this project, because otherwise I'd cheat:
- No skipping. If I haven't read the book, I have to give it a try, and I have to read at least one third of it. If after I make it one-third of the way through the book, I truly hate it, or it's wasting my time, or I'm not learning anything from it, I'm allowed to stop. But the catch is, then I have to get rid of it. Even if it's one of those books that make you look cool or smart if you have it on your shelf, I can't keep it if I can't get more than one-third of the way through it. I can give it to the Good Will, I can sell it on half.com, but it can't stay on my shelf.
- No cheating. I'm reading books I haven't read, not rereading books I already know by heart. I can reread those books when I'm old and forgetful.
- I don't have to read books I already tried and failed to read, as long as I got one-third of the way through it the first time. But I have to seriously consider getting rid of those books, too. If I think I'll want to try again some day, I can keep it, but otherwise, it's out of here.
- Yes, I have to read the Aristotle. And Jeremy's Asimov. Yes, this means it will be months before I get to Human Croquet. It will still be there.
- Yes, I have to read all that French poetry of Jeremy's. But I don't have to read all of it. Dude, it's my game, I make the rules.
- No, I can't throw away Jeremy's books if I don't like them.
- Yes, I can cheat and skip ahead to the Tolkien, because if I don't, I'm going to get divorced. No marriage counseling, no trial separation, divorced.
- No, I can't skip Jane Austen just because I was supposed to read it all in college but read the Cliff's Notes instead because I fucking hate Jane Austen. That doesn't count as having read it already. But now you all know my shameful English major secret: I hate Jane Austen. But I'll give her another try, except for Pride and Prejudice, because I got one-third of the way through that. Oh, wait, that's on my other reading list, and the one-third rule doesn't apply there. Damn it.
- No fair giving the book to the Good Will before I get to it in alphabetical order, just to avoid the one-third rule. I just had to add that one due to an overwhelming temptation caused by the foregoing Jane Austen discussion.
A few people have asked me to post my reading list in advance because they want to follow along. That's cool. I'm sort of making things up as I go, but here's a rough idea of some of the books I'll be reading next month (I'm leaving out the poetry and the things that I know are too dull for anyone but me to read):
Main Reading List:
- William Congreve, The Way of the World, and William Wycherly, The Country Wife. These two are not actually on my reading list, but I really like Restoration drama, so I'm going to reread them.
- Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
- Henry Fielding, Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews
- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. And oh, hell, I might as well do Emma, too, since it's there on the shelf in alphabetical order, and I'll get to it eventually.
The Alphabetical List:
- Aristotle, Ethics
- Isaac Asimov, I, Robot
Next month is mostly poetry and essays, actually. In May I get all those goddamn Victorian novels that go on forever. I may have to go on hiatus in May.
Now:
- Shakespeare, King Lear.
- Machiavelli, The Prince. I'm only skimming this. I was assigned this book more often than any other in college -- five or six times, I think. But it keeps coming up in critical essays about Shakespeare's tragedies, especially in reference to King Lear. I thought it was worth a reread.
- Kathy Acker, Pussy, King of the Pirates. A little change of pace here, eh? This is the first book on my alphabetical list of Books I Own But Haven't Read Yet. A gift from the lovely Emily, this book has been taunting me for a while. Some of the language is a bit clunky for my taste, but I'm finding that the book works better if you read it aloud.
- First Spanish Reader : A Beginners Dual-Language Book.
Since March 1:
- Sappho, poems, translated by Mary Barnard.
- Shakespeare, Hamlet, Othello, MacBeth.
- Marlowe, "Hero and Leander," Doctor Faustus.
- Spenser, Amoretti and Epithalamion, and The Faerie Queene, Book I.
- Sidney, "Defense of Poesy."
- Mallory, Mort d'Arthur (selections).
- Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "General Prologue," "The Knight's Tale," "The Miller's Tale," "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale," "The Merchant's Tale," "The Franklin's Tale," "The Tale of Sir Thopas."
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
- Beowulf.
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