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Posted by Anna van Gelderen on 25/7/2001, 21:42:24
Text on the t-shirt of one of my fellow-travellers in Mongolia: "IT
IS BETTER TO WALK A MILE THAN TO READ A THOUSAND
BOOKS". What is your reaction? (A) You want to rip the t-shirt
(B) You couldn't agree more: book readers are nothing but
other-worldly losers who lead pathetic vicarious lives.
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Posted by Dave on 26/7/2001, 5:04:00, in reply to "to read or to walk"
My response to your question will be fairly lengthy, because I am
compelled to quote something that I have often thought of as a
perfect response to the unliterate among us. (notice I did not say
"illiterate" which is completely different... the "un"literate CHOOSE
not to read). Firstly, the T-shirt is a gross exaggeration for
starters... I mean, it would have to be a terribly interesting mile,
and at the same time, the WORST thousand books ever written for
the guy's shirt to begin to approach something other than
nonsense. But, before tearing his shirt off (response A) I would
probably just first break into a sweat, and then try to quote from
memory at least some snippets from this completer version of
something C.S. Lewis once said...
"Those of us who have been true readers all our life seldom fully
realize the enormous extension of our being which we owe to
authors. We realize it best when we talk to an unliterary friend. He
may be full of goodness and good sense but he inhabits a tiny
world. In it, we should be suffocated. The man who is contented to
be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own
eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others.
Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will
see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are
not enough. I regret that the brutes cannot write books. Very
gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or a bee;
more gladly still would I perceive the olfactory world charged with
all the information and emotion it carries for a dog.
Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the
privilege, of individuality. There are mass emotions which heal the
wound; but they destroy the privilege. In them our separate selves
are pooled and we sink back into sub-individuality. But in reading
great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself.
Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but
it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action,
and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself
Then, and only then, after such a dignified recitation I would, of
course, kick sand in his face and tear his shirt off. I would then lay
in the grass or lean up against the nearest tree or sand dune...
open up any one of my thousand books, and with as little effort
and much greater pleasure, get to wherever he was going far
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Posted by Anna van Gelderen on 26/7/2001, 7:50:22, in reply to "Re: to read or to walk"
Dave, what a marvellous quote! I am going to use that a lot in
future, against every unliterate person I meet, but also as a
see-how-right-we-are-to-read-books reassurance to my literate
friends. I would also love to quote it prominently on my website.
Can you tell where exactly you got it from? Greatly indebted, Anna
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Posted by lale on 26/7/2001, 12:39:29, in reply to "Re: to read or to walk"
C - Never invite the guy over for dinner.
I agree with Dave, the mile has to be a pretty damn interesting one
and the 1000 books should be all trashy murder-mysteries or
pink-series love stories. Then I would prefer the mile.
If it was a quote that promoted exploring the world over an
inactive, TV-based life, then I would understand. But comparing
the exploration with reading... Anna does both, she explores the
world and reads. Ask her if she can pick one over the other. It is
like asking a mother to pick one child over another.
Turkish has several proverbs that promote experience over advice,
- "one bad experience is worth (teaches more) than 1000 advice"
-, those kinds of things make sense, experience is good, seeing
the world is good. But reading is necessary. Choosing not to read
is voluntary ignorance and inexcusable.
So, Anna, did you confront the guy? I can never confront these
people, getting into a discussion with them is a waste of time. I
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Posted by Dave on 27/7/2001, 3:32:07, in reply to "Re: to read or to walk"
The quote about reading is from the excellent book called "An
Experiment In Criticism" by C.S. Lewis, published by Cambridge
University Press in 1961, and reprinted 1995. The quote is from
the very last two pages of the book.
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Posted by Michael Sympson on 29/9/2001, 14:01:09, in reply to "Re: to read or to walk"
I wouldnÕt give up a good murder-mystery for some jog down the road. But reminds me: The ancients when
reading from their scrolls did 2 things: 1. they read aloud, 2. they very often read while walking. So as a citizen
of one of the bigger cities somewhere in the Roman empire, you went to the public baths for a copper,
borrowed a book from the library section and walked the cloistered aisle scroll in hand and reading aloud to
yourselves. (Even private letters were read this way.)
To read in quiet without moving the lips is a rather late development - if St. Augustine can be trusted -
practised for the first time by St. Ambrose when he read from a heavy codex propped up on a lectern or
I think it would be interesting to look into the physical side of reading aloud and walk while you read, the
breathing, and the style of the text. There were poets (not only in antiquity) who composed on the walk and I
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