“During the next thirty years I came to realize that just as there is more than one way to love a person, so is there more than one way to love a book” (Fadiman 38).
This quote tells the reader what the main point of this essay is. Fadiman believes that there are two types of ways to love a book: courtly or carnal. The author describes a courtly lover as caring about the entire book, including the condition of the book cover and the book pages. To a carnal lover, “a book’s words were holy” but nothing else matters (Fadiman 38). Carnal love allows you to write on the margins and fold the pages, whereas courtly love basically means that you can only read them. These two types of love can also be applied to other things, such as vehicles. A carnal lover would maintain the engine regularly, but not care how nice the car looks. However, a courtly lover would clean the car every weekend, along with maintaining the engine. Similar to Ali, I am also a mix of both, depending on the item. But if I had to pick one type I am more of, it would be courtly because I try to keep the majority of my stuff working and looking good. When I am dealing with a book, I am a carnal lover because I will write in the margins and highlight or underline in them because this can help me study. Before reading this, it has never occurred to me that there are some people who care too much about the book to write or highlight in them.
-Matt Townsend
That is really interesting how you applied the idea of carnal or courtly love to things other than books. I had never thought of that before! What caused you to think about that?
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks! I was just thinking about how courtly love is loving everything about a book, and carnal love is loving just the words themselves, or the heart of the book. I just thought about what else that could be applied to, and cars popped into my head because I thought of the "heart" of a car as the engine only. Without an engine you have no car and without words you have no book. Thanks, I appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteMatt, I agree with Anna -- interesting observation! What's also interesting is the way that we judge the other type. For instance, if you like to keep your car super clean, you probably judge the folks who don't care how clean their car is. Is this judgement OK, do you think? Is it worthwhile and necessary? Normal? Good post!
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