Nov 10, 2008
Against insipid books
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Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen, uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Schädel weckt, wozu lesen wir dann das Buch?
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
Nov 10, 2008
Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen, uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Schädel weckt, wozu lesen wir dann das Buch?
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Hmm. I wonder if I would make that qualification for ALL books.
Better, what books would be exempt from this standard?
Perhaps instruction manuals, but other than that nothing comes to mind.
Das ist das Erste von Kafka das mich jemals aufgeweckt hat. Na, das und die Fliege.
(Translation; thats the first bit of kafka that ever woke me up, well that and the fly… )
Yeah, I was thinking about the ’96 Camry manual I was rummaging through yesterday, though the whole “For Dummies” series has done a decent work in making manuals… tolerable.
How about Greek grammars? :o)
Other than that, I can’t think of any types of books that shouldn’t live up to Kafka’s standard. *Especially* books that take on theological matters.
So, books should never state the obvious?
http://twentytwowords.com/2008/08/12/3-reasons-it%e2%80%99s-sometimes-smart-to-state-the-obvious/
how about ones written to wake one up with a touch of healing to one’s Schaedel?
Replacing “book” with “blog” in Kafka’s statement also provides a good guide.
Interesting quote. Should I feel bad about reading Calvin & Hobbes so much?
From a writer’s perspective, it’s the kind of books/articles/blogs that we want to write. Nobody wants to write tepid things that will be forgotten in five minutes.
However, it’s not something that you can make yourself do. The ideas either come or they don’t.
In some ways we are at the mercy of the reader. Not everyone will respond the same way to what we write. On the other hand, there are some things a person would have to be comatose not to respond to.
Also, some of it is in God’s hands. There are people who read scripture and don’t get it at all. For others, it changes their lives and they’re never the same.
Perhaps I should have said it’s all in God’s hands–what we write and how people respond to it…
What about just enjoying a great read like…Charlottes’s Web?
Aren’t some books works of art to be savored and enjoyed?
I hope Barb is right.
Jamsco, Gethin, Chris, Stephanie, Barb, and Mark:
I am chastened.
There are more categories than “fist-to-the-skull” and “insipid.”
Now that I am thinking about it more, I think there is a place for lighter reading. If we were hit that hard (as Kafka says) every time we sat down to read, it would be overwhelming.
Dear chastened and chasteners,
It’s an outstanding quote, but I agree with you.
well . . . a work of art to be savored and enjoyed is certainly something that wakes you up and, perhaps though in gentler terms, punches you in the head, isn’t it? beauty can be just as startling as anything else, if not more. C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra is one of the most beautiful and yet unsettling books i’ve ever read (and i don’t mean it in that Times book critic “disturbingly beautiful” way). i think a children’s book can be held to the same criterion. maybe Charlotte’s Web doesn’t HAVE to be appreciated on that level, but maybe it could be. i don’t know.
Kafka is one of those extreme sorts – maybe melodramatic is a good word – but somewhere in the fields of his crazy imagination there always seem to be grains of truth to glean.
Carissa, I agree with you. Even though Charlotte’s Web is a lighter type of book–there’s a lot to it–and it does change you for having read it.
Now I know why I’ve never read anything by Kafka
These comments together illustrate why I will usually be reading 2-3 books simultaneously–different weights, different purposes, different punch.