I get the creeps lately if asked what i read. I usually answer with white lies, because i am too tired of explaining myself. As a writer, i am expected to read a lot – and rightly so. There is no special education for writers – forget about commercial workshops of creative writing, hardly anyone learned to write there.
Writers are not expected to have an exquisite formal education either, many of the best ones didn’t have any – yet they are expected to have interesting lives and to read manically.
That was the problem with women who wrote earlier – hardly anyone was interested in reading accounts of endless hours spent embroidering or gardening – or, per that matter, of any other activity a literate lady was allowed to engage in at the time.
Fast forward couple of centuries – and you are allowed to write on just about anything. With Lolita, in mid 20th century, Vladimir Nabokov broke the only remaining taboo theme in American Literature – the pedophilia. (Of course, many saw it as a metaphor of The Old Continent incorporated in deviant Humbert seducing the innocent USA – aka Lolita.)
But now that everything is permitted, what are you going to read? And why?
I wish i could un-do the corruption done to me by hundreds of the crappy books i read as a teenager. Some of those were classics – but no matter how well written those were, the ideas behind them are stupid from contemporary point of view… think of endless Victorian pseudo-moralization for example, what harm it has done to women’s awareness and, subsequently, to their rights.
I am flabbergasted by the compulsory reading in Montenegrin schools, the folk poems nationalists take so much pride in are deviant from the point of view of contemporary, liberated women – yet those are thought without any updates on progress achieved since the dark ages.
Apropos, in a country as small as ours, there are over 100 publishing houses, only four of them not being vanity publishers. Montenegrin population of 650.000 – not known to be among the avid readers – gets ten books published every single day. Most of it is crap – here, and worldwide too.
By crap i don’t mean chick lit – to the contrary, i enjoyed Lauren Weisberger’s ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘Everyone worth knowing’ – and many others of a kind.
I enjoy well written self-help books too, cook books and whatnot.
For work i have to read a lot, i was a member of managing board of local writer’s guild for years and as of currently i am its secretary general, that by default includes plenty of reading; last year i was the president of Montenegrin jury for European Union Prize for Literature, which added significantly to my usual reading.
For my own writing, i do scholarly researches worthy of a PhD thesis. I firmly believe that had someone invested the time to honor my work by reading it – they do deserve to get something in exchange.
The best praise i ever got – was by a great American poetess Tess Gallagher, who was love of Raymond Carver’s life and is his widow; she was the guest of honor at a literature festival here, that’s how we met… Now i must say that through my work with the State Protocol and, besides, being on perpetual globe-trotting of my own, i had met some of the richest and most influential individuals in the world – heads of states, legendary rock stars, folks from Forbes lists… it’s cool meeting people like that, not that wealth and fame are contagious, but because those people are usually quite extraordinary and it’s a privilege to spend some time in their vicinity, or at least that’s how i see it. But, all of those encounters put together don’t mean to me a half of what meeting Tess Gallalgher meant and none of it is even close to the impact her presence had on me. I had the honor of spending couple of hours for two consecutive days with this amazing lady – and it’s an experience deserving a memoir of its own.
Among all the things i learned from grand Tess in these two days – a sentence she said stayed forever with me and had marked me as a writer; apropos my story “Teshuva” published within first anthology of contemporary Montenegrin literature in English, Tess said: “I’ve never learned so much from a short story.”
(Actually that’s how we met, she had asked our great actress Varja Djukic to introduce her to the author of that story.)
That’s why i push myself over the physical and intellectual limits, that’s the motive behind manic researching behind my own writing.
I want you to get something in return for the time you choose to devote to my humble contribution, that pretty much sums it up.
And i insist on reciprocity here – if i am reading your stuff, i want to learn from it – or at least, get entertained. Or, ideally – both.
That’s why it’s tough for me to choose a novel. Currently, i am thoroughly enjoying Jose Saramago’s “Death with Interruptions”, he is one of my favorite writers and i read all of his books translated into our language – most of his opus that is. His work is genius, no other (as of current grammar use) adjective could describe it justly.
I read books that accompany Tarot decks – some of them are downright masterpieces, like those authored by Robert Place and Karen Mahony of Magic Realist Press.
I read Tarot itself and i am religiously following numerous Tarot blogs (see my blog roll.)
During last year or so i read several Lon Milo DuQuette’s books, him being my favorite occult author.
Not to forget the Yiddishkeit /keeping up with the Kabbalists and at least couple of hours a week i invest into yet another subject requiring a life-long commitment-the Yi Jing studies… and there is not time left for anything penned that’s less than excellent.
I started abandoning books – a practice unthinkable to me before, i had posted on my disappointment with Tea Obreht’s debute novel, “The Tiger’s Wife” , and i am giving up on Philip Roth’s “Nemesis” as well. I read the latter in English, so i can’t blame the usual suspect – the translator. I don’t like it. Besides being a priori suspicious when it comes to overly prolific writers – they smack of commercialism to me – i don’t find a trace of traditional Jewish values in this novel, albeit the narrative relies heavily on Judaic folklore. A good guy is surrounded by two-dimensional characters and worn down by unlucky circumstances in overly-simplified sentences… I read half of it during long rides in Moscow’s tube, but – as i had mentioned earlier- for better or for worse, there is no tube in Montenegro, so i’ll give it a pass.
As usual, this essay was inspired by a conversation with a friend, this time – with Kristina Manly, one of the very few brave souls who admit to share my hatred for Leo Tolstoy’s “Ana Karenina” and who were proud to abandon reading it.
As usually, prior to writing an essay, i did a Tarot reading to gain more insight, this time i combined Robert M. Place’s Alchemical and Vampire decks.
The Alchemical, among else, hit me with Grim Reaper and the Vampire – with The Wheel of Fortune (Fate), former indicating profound transformation which we undergo in the process of reading and the latter, in my opinion, the effects and actual changes an actual discourse can cause to the course of our destinies.
Queen of Stakes depicts Bram Stoker’s mother – Charlotte – strong and passionate, a social reformer and a feminist; the Court itself denotes someone who is both inspired and inspiring others…
My own mother has recommended me Saramago’s novel and passed me the book, while she’s currently reading Rachel Pollack’s follow-up to the classic “78 Degrees of Wisdom” – her “Tarot wisdom:Spiritual Teachings and Deeper Meanings”, in Russian translation.
with Tess Gallagher in Montenegro – photo from personal archives 2010
Copyright@2012 L.R.S., All Rights Reserved
Picture of the Tarot Reading setting copyright notice: The Vampire Tarot (2009) and The Alchemical Tarot (1995) decks @Robert M. Place, All Rights Reserved
Lena –
As always – I was entirely engrossed in this post! And yes, as writers we are expected to read. 😉 The interesting life thing … not so sure about that! 😉
Blessings,
Bonnie
Thank you for commenting dear Bonnie! Geez, wordpress is playing games with my mind – i am sure i had posted a reply earlier?! Anywayz, lol, i agree re. ‘interesting life’ – to me my own is utterly boring, it’s mostly in my head, i am a homey and a book worm… Lo and behold, some find that interesting?! Maybe interesting is anything not typical vs whatever is ‘typical’ in a given surroundings… even if that’s an existence as unadventurous as mine lol! 😀
Lena –
Mary Nale read your post, and asked me if she was now Charles Dickens! 😉 Every time I hear the word interesting as applied to life I think of that Chinese curse “May you have an interesting life.” I ampretty much a hermit person myself – but, as you say, that seems to interest some people! 😉
Blessings,
Bonnie
Mary’s is a great question, i must say! 😀 Speaking of Hermit, Life path/ Soul number 9 here, lol, i hear you! And… Chinese were right, as usually! ;_ I know a sub-variation of the same – ‘may you live in the time of changes’; well, i somehow managed through two ideological and economical systems, saw both of them fall down and break into pieces; my own country has morphed to and from four different states (Yugoslavia, “truncated federation” – without Slovenia and Croatia, the state union of Serbia and Montenegro and, finally, independent Montenegro ), the language i speak was called three different names since i speak it… so, yeah, everything changes but the change itself and we need learn somehow to navigate it! 😉
Lena –
All of the changes in Europe in my lifetime alone would definitely lead to an identity crisis or two! 😉
I like that second Chinese curse! 😉
Blessings,
Bonnie
You are what you read. At the moment I’m reading Titanic Lives, Teach yourself Gaelic (note: it’s not going well), photocopied manuscripts on Mamluk playing cards (for m’blog) and Why French Children Don’t Throw Food (answer: they’re encouraged to be ‘sage’) <- there, have saved you reading at least one book!
Great post, as ever!
Ali x
Thank you for commenting, Ali! I read reviews of Titanic Lives, sounds really interesting and well researched too! Thumbs up for learning Gaelic! I had met through work with a publisher from Dublin, who specializes in books and texts in Gaelic – what an amazing language and what a history behind it!
Looking forward to reading your post on Mamluk cards and.. thanks for the tip on ‘Why French Children Don’t Throw Food’, lol, will definitely give it a pass! xx
Ali –
LOL Always love your advice! 🙂
Blessings,
Bonnie
Thank you – a lot of the time *I* don’t even listen to me though, Bonnie !
Something I read as a teenager got my interest, can’t remember it verbatim, though it went something like this. It had to do with a literate king addressing a crowd of mostly illiterate people:
…. As the king read to the crowd from his expensive looking leather covered and superbly embossed tome, one of the almost literate crowd members noted to the people standing around him, “Why he cannot read at all, he has the book upside down” ….he was quickly shouted down by those around him who said…. ” If he can read what difference does it make on which way he holds the book?
Which left me forever thinking, if you choose to read something, is it not the main agenda of your receptive language skills on how you read it & then with your expressive language skills on how you interpret what it is you just read?
Not talking about just literal comprehension here, rather about writing as self expression. (or perhaps I’m too tired and should not be writing anything at all.)
Great point, Jim! It’s been a hot topic among philosophers with linguistic leanings – that basically the text is whatever you make of it, mostly irrelevant of the writer’s intent… You got me thinking here – i do read in my own language (any of the sub-genres of late Serbo-Croatian that is) and there i can totally enjoy some well written piece, even if it lacks deeper meaning. Maybe due to all the initial effort to understand the meaning behind foreign texts – while i wasn’t still fluent in the languages i nowadays read – there i have different criteria; eloquence is secondary compared to meaning behind it… speak of double standards lol! 😉
It took me a long time to accept the fact that i didn’t need to read crap books. SOOOO many things I have started because someone else said they were great and kept reading because I felt I had to… SOOO much time wasted. Now I figure if it hasn’t grabbed me by the first chapter then I’m not going to watse my time.
Having said that, i have persisted with a number of academical books (the Spirit Level in particlar) that weren’t very well written (too much emphasis on statistical graphs!) but were about something I really wanted to know more about) that I figured were worth pursuing that I am glad I did.
lol, good thing all your stuff is great to read and I want to keep reading to the end!
Faerygodmother, i think we are a part of a revolution of a kind here! I really don’t know where from that masochism came – that we MUST finish fiction books we don’t like… maybe from school assignments? Anyway, there is definitely no reason to do so – unless it is, as you say, non-fiction that’s maybe not so well written, but is useful for other things! (I apply the same criteria btw 😉 Thank you for taking the time to read my stuff – i really appreciate it because i have a great respect for your work as well! xxxx
Awww, thank you. Your work is awesome.
I’m glad no one asks me what I read and If they did I don’t know that I would tell. hahaha some things are best left unknown
Amy, dearest, you can always proudly announce that you read only non-commercial emerging European authors, such as Lena Ruth Stefanovic! 😉 xxxx