Ursula,
It is the "feasting on books of our own choosing" that gives me pause. I was
raised by my grandmother's eldest grandchild and was raised by her until I was
ten. Furthermore we lived in a tiny house and my earliest memories are lying
next to her at night as she fell asleep reading. She lost her hearing when she
was young but so not to miss out on her education took to reading excessively.
Her hearing returned, but her reading habits were life-long. She took me to
the library with her whenever she finished a load of books and needed a new
one. It was an extremely big deal when I was allowed to have a library card.
I soon chafed over being restricted to the young-people's section of the
library. The first serious book that I read was Robinson Crusoe. I loved it,
but I seriously doubt that I selected that book by myself. My grandmother was
in the habit of giving me books as birthday and Christmas presents. I remember
getting Zane Grey's The Spirit of the Border; which had pretty rough content,
but I loved that as well. At some age she bought me the complete works of Mark
Twain. I eventually read all of them, and one of my minor quests in college
was to determine as critically as possible whether Samuel Clemens had written
anything that qualified as great. From what I had read, I had my doubts; which
probably would have disappointed my grandmother.
I do recall (after my mother and father were divorced) and my grandmother moved
about five miles away deciding that I didn't appreciate everything I was being
told by my teachers and preferred doing my own investigations on various
matters. That became a life-long inclination. One of my earliest quests was
psychological. I can't recall what triggered it, but I "studied" Freud. I
can't recall how much I understood at age 11 or 12, but I do recall reading his
Interpretation of Dreams. So this book would have been of "my own choosing"
but it was probably in reaction to something some teacher said. I also recall
reading a book about some fellow who rode a motorcycle across Africa. I can't
recall why I chose that book. I do recall one friend who burst out laughing
every time I said "tse tse fly."
As I approached the end of my enlistment in the Marine Corps, and decided to
get out and go to college: four years of constant reading appealed to me
tremendously, and I always read things encountered along the way not
recommended by professors but, I wondered, why not? And so there were lots of
books I read during my college years "of my own choosing," but the motivations
were probably reactions or following up some interesting point that occurred to
me.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Ursula Stange
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2020 5:14 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: We staunch few
Dearest David, There is a question which has long engaged me (albeit in small
and intermittent bursts). When we were young and started feasting on books of
our own choosing, did we choose the books or did the books choose us? Did we
choose books that clinged and clanged with who we were already ‘destined’ to
be....or did the books shape us with their dings and dangs?
Asking for a friend....
Ursula
Far from the madding fray...for now
On Mar 2, 2020, at 11:57 PM, david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:------------------------------------------------------------------
I’m preparing for Wednesday’s class when I would normally talk about whether
or not WW1 and 2 are so different that they need to be called different
things, or that they are one war in two acts. It used to be that one would
assign essays on such a subject. Now…nope.
Because the course is called “Perspectives on Society and Culture” and we are
encouraged to consider non-European views, I decided to start this time
around with a Japanese anarchist, Itô Noe, about whom everyone might know
nothing had the police who murdered her and her second husband not had the
bad luck to also murder his nephew, who was an American citizen, born in
Portland, Oregon. Before she died, and she knew the brutal end was coming,
she got in the face of authority by writing articles that now occupy the
final pages of Mikiso Hane, “Peasants, Rebels, Women and Outcasts: The
Underside of Modern Japan."
My second reference will be Georgina Sand, who is related by marriage to
Keith Lowe, author of, “The Fear and the Freedom." His book is an attempt to
assess how the Second World War shaped the second half of the twentieth
century. She grew up Jewish in Vienna, was put on a Kindertransport and was
lodged with a family whose grandson, “tried to do unpleasant things with me.”
Yes there are two major wars in the first half of the twentieth century and
large events seem to demand a god’s-eye view, but underneath it all were
people who were, like us, trying their best to survive.
My third source is Norman Stone, “World War Two, A Short History,” in which I
have found errors. My point will be that small errors of fact do not a
sweeping narrative destroy and that his perspective, especially on Turkey and
the Middle East, is engaging.
All this is prelude to my question for you. The reason I write now is that I
wondered over dinner—my wife is at tennis and so there’s plenty of quiet for
wondering—whether or not it would be reasonable to ask what few of you who
remain on the list if there is some matter or question big or small, you’ve
been waiting a while to put before us. It’s an impertinent and
impatient-seeming question—you’ll normally tell us what you think when you
think it—but this evening I’m conscious of the way events can suddenly turn.
Conversation is practice and the more this list is silent the less likely it
is that anyone will have much to say. I stopped and thought and decided, why
not? What harm could there be in sending out a small provocation,? A two
percent death rate is so small by historic standards, and it’s not as if this
list has only old people on it.
David Ritchie,
washing his hands often in
Portland,
Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------
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