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Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age

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I found a copy of this book second-hand at the Strand in New York, and bought it on the basis of its title. Once I began reading it, however, I found the title to be slightly misleading. By "Reading," Alter does not so much mean the phsyical act of sitting down and reading a book (though he does touch upon that in his introduction). He is more concerned with issues of "reading" in the context of interpretation. His opening chapter is a refutation of certain modern cabals of lit-crit, after which he goes on to examine the very things that make literature literature: Metaphor, Allusion, Structure, Perspective, etc. His marvellous use of examples, his insightful analysis of these same examples, all make for a great reading experience. This book is not only for scholars, but also for anyone interested in looking more closely at literature. One feels awed at Alter's enormous breadth of reading. This book is truly a classic, and it's a shame it's generally unavailable. Perhaps Alter's little book is not "modern" (i.e. trendy) scholarship, but it is clear, straightfoward and eminently cogent. In a perfect world, this book would be read in every high school english class.

There has been a series of theoretical "culture wars" in the academy in the past quarter century, and these have taken their toll on the actual practice of reading literature qua literature, and not merely as the expression of some oppressive ideology, or simply the deplorable detritus left behind by dead European males. Academics have been so busy saying "18th century British imperialism is evil and it must stop now!" that they have not bothered to remember what a chiasmus is, what "structure" means, how allusion works, even what literary language itself is. Alter's book is a largely eirenic effort to redress these deficiencies by helping readers, both scholarly and lay, to relearn the techniques---sophisticated intellectual techniques, not easy cookie-cutter formulae---necessary to read literature with genuine appreciation and understanding. Literature is an almost inexhaustibly complex phenomenon and its comprehension requires the acquisition of accordingly complex skills. These skills, foreign to most modern students and difficult in themselves (far more difficult than a happy game of "spot the patriarchy") cannot be set forth by any author, no matter how gifted a prose stylist, in terms fit for a dunce. Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. I would add that the stupid, too, will always be with us. And also that American culture does little to nurture the intelligent OR the stupid. No child left behind tends to mean every child left behind. It is a policy that panders to the lowest common denominator. It does not encourage the lesser mind to ascend; it deprives the fine mind of the challenges it requires to grow, and simultaneously encourages the weak mind to think its own weakness acceptable. All men and women are NOT created equal in intellectual capacity.

Robert Alter's book does not advertise itself as pleasurable reading, but aims to provide the reader with the painfully-acquired tools by which he or she may learn to derive true pleasure from literary language. Anyone who does not recognize this fact is succumbing to a standard American idea, one that holds that things are valuable only insofar as they are entertaining and easy. In point of fact, Alter is, as academics go, a VERY lucid and reader-friendly prose stylist. He's engaging, occasionally quite funny, and his range of reference is astonishing. His breadth of learning reminds one of Auerbach, Curtius, Wimsatt, Frye. These were scholars of unimpeachable erudition, quite unlike the over-specialized careerists that litter modern literature departments.

One MAY, then, if one has a modicum of intelligence, derive pleasure from learning these sophisticated techniques from a master like Alter. But even if one finds Alter's lessons hard, the results of a serious effort to engage with him and master the basic lessons he has to teach---the willingness to undergo that arduous labor of looking up a gorgeously expressive word like "efflorescence," the mere knowledge of which enriches not only the vocabulary, but the soul---will result in a new sensitivity to reading that WILL bring pleasure. The great philosopher Spinoza wrote, in what should be every American's new motto in this age of mindless convenience, "All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare."

I do understand that much, and am the better for it. Do not listen to an adverse review of this book. Read this and Northrop Frye's out-of-fashion (read: useful) "The Educated Imagination" and rediscover how you belong to literature, and how literature belongs to you. Americans need, urgently, to learn how to THINK again. Thinking is hard work, and real reading requires constant and vigilant thought. But isn't it better to be learned than foolish? Isn't it better to be free than brainwashed? Isn't it better to EARN your right to participate in civilization than to accuse the wisdom of the ages of being too unpleasantly difficult to be worth learning?

Robert Alter is a lover of literature who reads and interprets it for pleasure. In this work he criticizes the academic practice of focusing on literary theory and babbling in abstract terms rather getting down to reading and enjoying the texts themselves. In this work he shows what he means by reading by reading some of the world 's great literature including the Bible, Shakespeare, Stendhal, Dickens. His book is structured into discussions of fundamental aspects of literature, character and its connection with reality, style, structure, allusion and what he calls 'perspective.'Alter is a brilliant ' close reader' and he continually illuminates the text in language which is clear and free of technical jargon. This is his conclusion," Reading is a privileged pleasure because each of us enjoys it, quite complexly, in ways not replicable by anyone else. But there is enough structured common ground in the text itself so that we can talk to each other, even sometimes persuade each other, about what we read: and that many- voiced conversation, with which, thankfully, we shall never have done, is one of the most gratifying responses to literary creation, second only to reading itself.

I almost always underline/jot-notes-to-myself-in-the-margins when I read a book. This book, however, is so meticulously written, that I am breathless in the hand. My copy is spotless, just as Alter's polemic/ecstatic statement is without flaw. This book is endlessness, and I will let it inform me for the rest of my life.

This book proves that reading is more than for research; it can be a source of real pleasure to lose yourself in a tempting novel or to learn from biographies about your heroes. When I chose this 'history' at a book sale, I was told it's a textbook. It does give sevreal theories about how we are able to read, but we are not told what to read. We are what we read. "You should make it a habit, when reading books, to attend more to the sense than to the words, to concentrate on the fruit rather than the foliage" was the advice from the 13th Century as it should be
today as well.

Writing requires a reader. Many authors have public appearances to read from their works. It was thought that listening to a text led the audience to buy the published piece. "Reading publicly was the best way for an author to acquire an audience. In fact, reading publicly was in itself a rudimentary form of publishing." Before I left Pulaski, our local celebrity/writer, Gregory Mcdonald read his poem for a group of us there for him to sign the books of his we already owned. We had no idea he had written a poem, of all things! He wrote in my A WORLD TOO WIDE "To an exciting future..."

In the movie, "Capote," we watched as Truman received a standing ovation when he read from a work in progress. Here in Knoxville, several local writers read from their new books; I've heard only one and disappointed that he had not acquired public-speaking skills and did not read as good as he wrote. There is a photo in this 'textbook' of Charles Dickens giving a reading. Back then, there were illustrated novels, like his A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

Now, this type of using drawings or pictures throughout a book has revived, starting with Jack Finney's back-in-time stories. The first published books were world classics like "Everyman," Goethe's "Faust," and Ibsen's plays. Oscar Wilde is reported to have remarked, "I never read a book I must review...." It has been proven that singing and reading to can slow down the destruction of the brain cells which causes Alzheimer's disease; "if you can't think of what to do, sit and read to your loved one -- if you read poetry, it's almost like singing."

There have been censorship on certain books since time immemorial; Nazis used it at a public book burning of some American books. I remember when Salman Rushdie's THE SATANIC VERSES was burned and he had a death threat on his head by Islamic fundamentalists. "The parents who took the Hawkins County Public Schools to court in Tennessee in 1980... argued that an entire elementary school series, which included "Cinderella," "Goldilocks" and THE WIZARD OF OZ, violated their fundamentalist religious beliefs."

This book is a reasonable history not only of reading but also of common readers, the individuals who, through the ages, chose certain books over others...at times rescued forgotten titles from the past...." This is the story of their small triumphs...and of the manner in which these things came to pass. How it all happened is minutely chronicled in this book." Writers read mainly from their own works to entice the listener to desire to possess and read all of the book. There are book collectors who never read the books they obtain and yet they won't give them as gifts or share with others.

Who could look past the irony? A book entitled "The Pleasures of Reading" that is a nightmare to read. Here are just a few passages taken at random:

"The efflorescence of metaphor and the hesitations of syntax." (E flor escence !)
""The multiplication of metaphors goes hand in hand with a restless accretion of syntactic particles, as though an endless patience of accumulation were necessary to approach an object of thought that was intrinsically elusive." (A pleasure to read)
"The aspect of intentionality of allusion in contradistinction to intertextuality." (Ditto)

I did not search these examples out, and they are not an aberration. Every single paragraph of this travesty has sentences and phrases just like these.

Why do academics do this? They believe that a display of complicated vocabulary makes them relevant, and even more crazy interesting. Yes, Professor Alter, you have an impressive vocuabulary. Now, what exactly are you trying to say? And why, oh why! Is reading your text like being drilled by a dentist? Oh I forgot, being drilled by a dentist is "a pleasure".

The professor makes some thought-provoking points. For example, examining Robinson's Crusoe's obsession with safety and fortification. But the annoying effort to get to his points is so painful that it is excruciating.

The other three reviews here must have been written by his friends or even more likely, current students. I hate to be that cynical, but to describe this radically pedantic tome as a "pleasure to read" is like calling Mike Tyson an intellectually stimulating poet. Could someone of that opinion be just a person with a different opinion? Or a specific agenda?

Bottom Line: Unreadable. Unless of course your are in the professor's class in dire need of an "A". If you believe this judgment is too harsh, pick up this disaster and make up your own mind.