"You must be capable not only of great fineness of perception, but of great boldness of imagination if you are going to make use of all the novelist-the great artist-gives you." (Woolf, 3)
This quote from Virginia Woolf 's essay " How Should One Read a Book" truly embodies the whole theme of her piece. She states in many different ways throughout this essay that if we read any piece of writing without any prejudgement (such as who the author is, what the cover of the book looks like, or what other critics have said about the writing) that we will then begin to fully understand the authors true meaning and intentions. This piece was filled with rhetorical questions that the reader is supposed to think about. These questions allow the reader to venture into their imagination and begin to wonder what it would feel like to become completely immersed in their reading.
But what would happen if the reader were to become so engulfed in their imagination that they lose sight of what it means to enjoy a good book? This was touched upon in Fadiman's essay "Never Do That To A Book" He claims that members of his family have done things to the pages of their books that others would deem sinful. However they are doing these things merely because they find the joys of reading and using the imagination greater than the actual physicality of the book itself. One character in particular in this essay states that he owns two of each just so that one does not have to go through the stress of turning pages. Faidman states "I hope that I am not deluding myself when I imagine that even the Danish chambermaid, if she is now a mother, might be able to appreciate a really grungy copy of Pat the Bunny- a book that invites the reader to act like a Dobellian giant mongoose" (Feidman, 43) Feidman and Woolf is among the belief that the ripped and smudged pages of a worn book are proof that the book has done its job in taking you inside your imagination and allowing you to be taken to another place inside your mind.
-Katelyn Palmer
Katelyn, good post! I'm curious: did you come to the Fadiman or Woolf essays with preconceived notions? Did they change after reading Woolf?
ReplyDeleteI did not really have any preconceptions about either of the essays I was more or less curious once I read the titles though. Just from looking at the titles alone I was wondering "wait what shouldn't I do with a book?" and "What is the proper way to read a book?" So I guess I did have a little bit of a preconception because I already was thinking in my mind about what they could possibly say and tell me about reading. Afterwords I was really intrigued about the points that the authors made. Woolf's essay really made me think because very often I do choose a book to read based on what friends say or what the cover looks like. After reading that essay I will try and choose my books more open-mindly.
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