Literature Is Not Dead

Where do I come up with these titles?

I’ve finally reached the end of A Room of One’s Own. I found it considerably harder to get through than “How Should One Read a Book?”

A Room suffers from the fact that women have progressed so very far. Though sadly it is probably still pertinent to much of the world, in the United States at least women have escaped most of the chains of social impoverishment. (Of course Kristan was right in the comments section. Woolf: philosophies great, style hard. Woolf herself was so impoverished she couldn’t afford to indent. Seriously! Paragraphs three pages long.)

In holding with Woolf’s philosophies I’ve finally commandeered a room of my own and turned it into an office. I took one entire wall and painted it as a chalkboard and it is pretty splendid. I’ve set up all my toys and so far the inspiration has flowed. As Woolf says in “How One Should Read a Book,” we cannot suppress our own idiosyncrasy without impoverishing it.

Woolf was not talking about writing, though I think the sentiment fits, but about reading, and about how crucial it is for us to develop our own ability to read critically.

And if everyone’s predictions are correct about the coming e-book universe, reading critically will be ever more important, for there shall be quite a bit to wade through, and we’ll have to learn the skill of throwing books aside in anger (or deleting them with stern keystrokes, at least).

All change is not sky falling, however, as a perusal of the amazing world of the Kindle boards will soon reveal. The boards are a glimpse at a vibrant and vigorous reading world of tomorrow, one that fits so nicely Woolf’s reasons why we should read well:

If behind the erratic gunfire of the press the author felt that there was another kind of criticism, the opinion of people reading for the love of reading, slowly and unprofessionally, and judging with great sympathy and yet with great severity, might this not improve the quality of his work? And if by our means books were to become stronger, richer, and more varied, that would be an end worth reaching.

In these days when the press’s gunfire grows ever more erratic, let’s embrace our own idiosyncrasy, enjoy our modern freedoms, and read and argue galore. It’s a good time to be writer or reader.