There is no point in trying to hide it: I am quite pleased with myself. I read a novel, and even enjoyed the ordeal, overall.
Still, there were times when I was bored and frustrated. The only thing that helped me through those episodes was visualizing my suffering as "noble and heroic." The half-facetiousness of this lightened my mood. Fortunately the novel would then become more interesting in a couple pages, and I could take a break from my play-acting.
This gimmick worked all through the novel. Many times, I kept hearing a voice say, "It's a far, far better thing I do than..." But say, where did that come? Wasn't it from some novel I was forced to read in high school, and therefore, probably disliked? Rather ironic, if true.
And yet there are many people who enjoy novels, effortlessly I suppose. What is their secret? Why don't they spill it to people like me? Maybe it will help to consider one category of successful novel-readers at a time.
1. Novel-readers who simply like the physical act of tediously and repetitively rastering their eyeballs over the printed page, while sitting in a chair all day. Maybe they like the cozy atmosphere of sipping on some hot tea, with a cat purring next to them, and some soothing, non-vocal music playing in the background. There are even people who can read when reclining. To some extent, reading a book for them is "chewing gum for the eyes," although that old witticism applies better to television.
2. Novel-readers who are not crazy about the physical act of reading, but who tolerate it because of the:
a) entertainment value of the stories. They must be easily entertained. Ninety-five percent of the shop-worn plots are Love Triangles, adulterous love triangles, unrequited love, revenge, mistaken identity, rags-to-riches, whodunnit, and violence. If the novel is modern, it will also be replete with lurid and sordid bedroom scenes.
b) what they can learn about how human personalities interact with the challenges in their personal lives. Human situations become a mini-sermon to them; a non-academic, concrete illustration of a philosophical principle.
Clearly, #1 and #2a type readers have nothing to teach me. Only #2b type people could. Next time I need to expand on #2b.
Still, there were times when I was bored and frustrated. The only thing that helped me through those episodes was visualizing my suffering as "noble and heroic." The half-facetiousness of this lightened my mood. Fortunately the novel would then become more interesting in a couple pages, and I could take a break from my play-acting.
This gimmick worked all through the novel. Many times, I kept hearing a voice say, "It's a far, far better thing I do than..." But say, where did that come? Wasn't it from some novel I was forced to read in high school, and therefore, probably disliked? Rather ironic, if true.
And yet there are many people who enjoy novels, effortlessly I suppose. What is their secret? Why don't they spill it to people like me? Maybe it will help to consider one category of successful novel-readers at a time.
1. Novel-readers who simply like the physical act of tediously and repetitively rastering their eyeballs over the printed page, while sitting in a chair all day. Maybe they like the cozy atmosphere of sipping on some hot tea, with a cat purring next to them, and some soothing, non-vocal music playing in the background. There are even people who can read when reclining. To some extent, reading a book for them is "chewing gum for the eyes," although that old witticism applies better to television.
2. Novel-readers who are not crazy about the physical act of reading, but who tolerate it because of the:
a) entertainment value of the stories. They must be easily entertained. Ninety-five percent of the shop-worn plots are Love Triangles, adulterous love triangles, unrequited love, revenge, mistaken identity, rags-to-riches, whodunnit, and violence. If the novel is modern, it will also be replete with lurid and sordid bedroom scenes.
b) what they can learn about how human personalities interact with the challenges in their personal lives. Human situations become a mini-sermon to them; a non-academic, concrete illustration of a philosophical principle.
Clearly, #1 and #2a type readers have nothing to teach me. Only #2b type people could. Next time I need to expand on #2b.
Comments
I was thinking the other day about Clevinger(?) in Catch-22 who stove to live in boredom (time passed real slowly) so he would feel like he was living longer (and Yossarian shouting, "Stop! Can't you see your killing him! to Nately who was drawing Clevinger into an argument).
Every character in Catch-22 represented a specific human trait/quality. I think if you read fiction in this manner---seeing the conflicts between specific human traits---it makes it much more enjoyable.
Enjoy your travels.
Is there some other posture that one should be in to read a novel? I can understand sitting at a desk with pen and paper at hand if you are studying. Reading a novel however, for me, is a relaxing pass time that is always done reclining.
I don't think I can teach you to enjoy reading novels but I know that you do read a lot and enjoy history so I would encourage you to focus on historical novels. If there is any one thing that that you must do - you must read them while reclining!
(I've never read any of his stuff. He has written so many novels I was afraid that he had found a "formula" that worked in the marketplace, and that was all there was to him.)
You read to relax? I can't imagine such a thing. Seriously. Like Samuel Johnson, who read like he was ripping the book's heart out, I get serious, intense, and impatient when I read.
People read fiction for the same reason they listen to music, watch TV, or go to the movies. They want to be entertained.
People watch FOX news or MSNBC because they want another version of the facts even though its supposed to be nonfiction.
Of course I don't want to interpret the word 'trait' to imply finality or predetermination to the arc of a character in the novel. I need to be a little more optimistic than that.
I think I've read everything he's written. Neve once disappointed.
History itself is often another form of fiction in the sense that it is influenced by the subjective biases of the author.
Jim
not sure how to add a comment, so I'll go this route.
I've been a compulsive novel reader for 66 years, but I read them for different reasons now than I did as a child and young adult When I was young I read to experience life through other people's eyes, to go places and to do things in my imagination that I could not do or would not be allowed to do in real life. Uncle Tom's Cabin, the first half of David Copperfield, and War and Peace, all of which I read before I was 13, have had a profound, positive influence on my life.
These days I don't read much new fiction, with the notable exception of Jane Smiley's stuff. Novel reading requires the reader to surrender her/himself to the author. That has become harder for me as I age, because I usually decide somewhere around the second chapter that the author (a) has nothing to teach me, or, worse, (b) is an exploitive manipulator -see most best sellers. That's true also of so-called "high class" or " literary" fiction.
I do like mysteries and thrillers as a form of relaxation and distraction, but it's getting harder to find good ones. New thrillers are mostly gun and/ or terrorist porn. Mystery writers now too often blithely kill off likeable characters, and worse still, dogs!. Plus, yes, there are ghastly cliché-ridden scenes of explicit sex everywhere. ( Is it just me or are at least 50% of Kindle Unlimited books porn of one sort or another?)
In summary, alas, if you want to read worthwhile fiction, stick to Shakespeare and the pre-20th century classics, or resign yourself to kissing an awful lot of frogs. (Needless to say, I didn't last long in the local book club.)
Sincerely yours,
A Retired Librarian
P.S. Thank you for being one of the few people in the arid west who lives an ecologically responsible life.