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| Augustine |
I am a sinner. I admit it. I have broken every one of the
commandments. And sometimes I liked it. But most of the time I have tried to
abide by them. I have found that doing so has brought me great gifts, and, if not
peace of mind, then pieces of minds that have helped my own. If this sounds
Satanic, it isn’t. The commandments I am talking about are not the ones most
are familiar with. I have brought a new set down, not from a mountaintop, but
from the web instead.
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Ten Commandments
I.
Thou
Shalt not Skim
II.
Thou
Shalt Leave Thy Literary Comfort Zone
III. Thou Shalt Not Be Distracted While Reading
IV. Thou Mayest Read Books For Distraction
V.
Thou
Shalt Not Avoid Demanding Books
VI. Thou Shall Not Compare The Book To The Film
VII. Thou Shalt Reread
VIII. Thou ShaLt Read In A Foreign Language
IX. Honor Thy Writer: Read New Writing
X. Thou
Shalt Always Be Reading Something
The author of these words is not omnipotent. He is however
an omnivore. Not of food but of words. His name is Joseph Luzzi. He is a professor of Italian literature. Like
Tim Shutt, he believes Dante’s Divine Comedy may well be the best work of
literature ever written. But he also believes that the words we read, of
whatever sort, create a state of mind that is powerful and well-run, or functions as
a failed nation state inside our head.
His commandments are a part of
lectures on the art and the science of reading. I will be commenting on each of
the commandments in subsequent blogs, but I do feel the need to confess that I
have not been saintly in my life. I have not been able to follow any of these
with singular devotion; the ticks and tocks of days, the obligations and
conversations, and dull drone of keeping the books instead of being able to
read great tomes all have made me what all of us are, poor sinners who need a
guide to bring us out from the Inferno into the heavenly light of grace
granting worlds and words.
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| Tapestry inspired by Botticelli's 3 Graces |
The graces I speak of are the stories that others
tell that lead us into the temptation of knowledge. The writers are not
serpents in a garden; instead, they are the Virgils and Beatrices--versions of Dante's guides. And they take us on a journey that is now, in our modern world, a meandering road less travelled by.
Some are guides toward the light and others are cautionary tales, but many of
them will change our vocabulary and our syntax, those building blocks that
create a foundation for the shining city on a hill that promotes freedom and
ethics in our own bodies and minds, and, if we are lucky and good, in others
too.
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| Virgil leading Dante through the Inferno |
The first commandment is impossible to live by regularly.
Why? As writers like Luzzi and Daniel Pink and Nate Silver point out, most of
us spend a great deal of time in our days simply sorting through the
overwhelming amount of information that comes to us via Facebook, email,
twitter etc. It can take hours just to glance at all the new notifications that
ping, pop, and plop in our electronic in-boxes. In order to survive most of us
have become world-class skimmers.
We compete daily to get through the overwhelming amount of data
we have coming our way and at the same time try to keep up with the routine
tasks of our jobs and our lives. Learning to skim is one of the more necessary skills
it takes to survive.
But Luzzi is right too. Some of the words, often in books or
long articles, took years to complete, research, edit, and finally publish. The words
jump or dance or do something other than sit quietly waiting for a partner. Instead
they ‘sinduce’ us, a word invented by Joyce in Finnegan’s Wake the slowest read
I know of. The words are hot and expect passion in return. They want a
passionate affair instead of a quick kiss on the cheek.
And if we take the time to fall in love with a book or an author
we will have a life-changing experience.
The pleasures of the text, a phrase stolen from Roland Barthes, will be a starting
point for the second part of my effort to encourage ‘the marriage of true minds’
that will grow, mature, and nurture children over a lifetime of close reading
with what we determine will be our sacred texts.
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| Inferno: Paolo and Francesca, Virgil and Dante |
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