Reading a Novel. An act of empathy.

Open mind

I've always felt just a teeny-tiny twinge of guilty pleasure whenever I plunge into a work of fiction. Especially if it's a huge novel.

I'm sure this is some combination of Puritan work ethic and residual "time of the end" JWism. The same Father who never let us kids sleep in and "waste our lives away" would probably also have said "Life is too short to waste on fiction" if he'd ever given it any serious thought.

Ann Patchett, author of "Bel Canto", (which I've yet to read) just released me of any fiction-reading guilt. She was being interviewed on NPR this morning and was asked about people who only read Non-Fiction and also, whether the novel will ever die out as a literary form.

She had an interesting take on it I thought.

Her response was that both the writing and the reading of a novel is an act of empathy. It takes an investment of time and emotional energy to put ourselves into the life of another person.

I liked that. Now I can feel all noble about it.

Open Mind

Gopher

Just be careful, OM! Bad association spoils useful habits, you know.

Seriously it's been a long time since I"ve read a good novel. About 3 years ago I read Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court". I am glad I spent the time reading it. He has to be my favorite author.

journey-on

Then I have wasted much of my life especially when I was in my James A. Michener phase....lol

changeling

You MUST read Bel Canto!

I absolve you from all guilt.

Fiction feeds the imagination and the soul.

changeling

Open mind

Changeling:

You MUST read Bel Canto!

Thank you, thank you.

No room for guilt now. I'm just following orders!

Open Mind

compound complex

G'day, Open Mind!

Baba Yaga wrote in "Quotable Quotes":

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

--- Writing Dept., WTB&TS [gotcha! Albert Einstein]

I spend hours daily in a book; that's the only way to get through one Harry Potter a week! Got rid of guilt a while back. Nathan Knorr spoke disparagingly of time wasted upon "dime novels." Well HP, Tolkien's works, the classics, non-WT Bible commentaries, etc. do not fit that description.

Read on, and find sheer delight in the workings of your imagination - may it soar! [far better than "the movie"]

CoCo

Open mind

CoCo:

I spend hours daily in a book

That's a luxury I'm looking forward to when the kids are grown.

In the meantime, I enjoy hearing whatever literary crumbs people drop here and there.

Take care.

Open Mind

Narkissos

La vraie vie, la vie enfin découverte et éclaircie, la seule vie par conséquent réellement vécue, c'est la littérature.

(Approximate translation: "Literature is true life, life uncovered and clarified at last, hence the only life ever really lived.")

Marcel Proust, Le temps retrouvé.

jaguarbass

I read where someone said they buy books. Not so that they could read them but immagine they had the time to read them.

Get a job as a detention officer working 11pm to 7 am. You will have time to read all of the classics, all of the fiction, all of the science fiction.

But you still wont be able to figure out where we came from or where we are going. Man on earth that is.

llbh

Hi Open mind,

I read all the time love it , my favourite book is The Little Prince by Antoine de st Exupery; it works on differnt levels. it is about 100 pages lonf with pictures , so you can read it without guilt. BTw changeling I will order that book today regards llbh

Reading a Novel. An act of empathy.

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