“Someone is always discovering Tolstoy for the first time. We ought to care a lot more about that.”
One year ago, in a second hand shop seeking a few yard tools I ambled past the paperbacks. Anna Karenina, 25 cents. “I should try this.” Three months later I see the characters in people around me and even better: I’m slowing down to observe nature and trying to describe it as Leo might have. Your piece is appropriately optimistic. Thank you for putting it to pixels.
AK… I began reading it on a plane last year. I filled the back of four boarding passes with tiny scrawls of paragraphs & page numbers of poignant prose. I’ve meant to post about a few at a time. Maybe this is an apt reminder for me. I’m 39% (according to Kindle) through Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. This, like AK-Tolstoy, is my initial book with the author. I defer to Henry for book recommendations.
It's a good case - and highlights why it's so important that people speak and write about the great things they read. Someone could read about the brilliance of, say, Tolstoy and Shakespeare a million times on the internet, but they're much more likely to pick it up if someone they know and respect is talking about what makes them so great!
Modern printing of even hardcover or trade PB physical books doesn't help: vapid and smeary ink, flimsy see-through paper... I'll take a Reader's Digest World's Best Reading version.
"Someone is a;ways discovering....for the first time. We ought to care a lot more about that."
Yes. So important. I've left a blank in the middle. Tolstoy, of course, but directors of opera (for example) have forgotten this. I'd put Wagner in there, too, especially.
I think a lot of literary dooming is from the point of view of writers (and not a million miles removed from self-promotion). Things are pretty good for readers.
I feel the same way and am often disappointed by how I feel reading recent releases as compared to classics and older books. I’ve often wondered if it’s because, growing up, the classics were my bread and butter. I had read Mrs Dalloway in the 9th grade, Charles Dickens and Hardy in the 8th. The joy I have reading Trollope is unparalleled by any recent release and that disappoints me, and The Mill on the Floss is one of my most treasured books. As a writer this scares me. During my MFA the writing advice we got was often antithetical to the writing advice I implicitly picked up reading the classics, and while I’m not trying to say that the MFA itself is the root cause of everything wrong with literature, I will say this: it definitely has a role to play, as does the fast paced factory that is the publishing industry. Loved reading this excerpt and am now heading to The New Statesman to read the whole piece.
Part of my own “low-beat literary mood,” at the risk of sounding elitist, comes from seeing literary energy get misplaced - either when readers go for the entertainment-only fiction, or when they approach substantive fiction only to be entertained.
“Someone is always discovering Tolstoy for the first time. We ought to care a lot more about that.”
One year ago, in a second hand shop seeking a few yard tools I ambled past the paperbacks. Anna Karenina, 25 cents. “I should try this.” Three months later I see the characters in people around me and even better: I’m slowing down to observe nature and trying to describe it as Leo might have. Your piece is appropriately optimistic. Thank you for putting it to pixels.
Love this!
I finished Anna Karenina for the first time last week. I am in awe!
Isn’t it the best?
AK… I began reading it on a plane last year. I filled the back of four boarding passes with tiny scrawls of paragraphs & page numbers of poignant prose. I’ve meant to post about a few at a time. Maybe this is an apt reminder for me. I’m 39% (according to Kindle) through Dostoyevsky’s Brothers Karamazov. This, like AK-Tolstoy, is my initial book with the author. I defer to Henry for book recommendations.
It is!
What do you recommend next? (How can anything compare to AK?)
Well for Tolstoy the short fiction is excellent as is W&P, but you may feel you need something different…
'The spread of AI will make the most “human” activities more valuable.'
I like this line (in your excellent essay) very much!
Yes same :)
It's a good case - and highlights why it's so important that people speak and write about the great things they read. Someone could read about the brilliance of, say, Tolstoy and Shakespeare a million times on the internet, but they're much more likely to pick it up if someone they know and respect is talking about what makes them so great!
Exactly so
Modern printing of even hardcover or trade PB physical books doesn't help: vapid and smeary ink, flimsy see-through paper... I'll take a Reader's Digest World's Best Reading version.
"Someone is a;ways discovering....for the first time. We ought to care a lot more about that."
Yes. So important. I've left a blank in the middle. Tolstoy, of course, but directors of opera (for example) have forgotten this. I'd put Wagner in there, too, especially.
Tolstoy have been with me since I was 15, that is for 55+ years.
❤️
I think a lot of literary dooming is from the point of view of writers (and not a million miles removed from self-promotion). Things are pretty good for readers.
Yeah agree
Loved this! Such a refreshing, hopeful take. So well written
🙏🙏
Discovered this from googling myself! Enjoyed it and agree heartily
Haha nice
I am very glad you found the case for literary optimism. Join the lovers of literature.|!
🙏❤️
I feel the same way and am often disappointed by how I feel reading recent releases as compared to classics and older books. I’ve often wondered if it’s because, growing up, the classics were my bread and butter. I had read Mrs Dalloway in the 9th grade, Charles Dickens and Hardy in the 8th. The joy I have reading Trollope is unparalleled by any recent release and that disappoints me, and The Mill on the Floss is one of my most treasured books. As a writer this scares me. During my MFA the writing advice we got was often antithetical to the writing advice I implicitly picked up reading the classics, and while I’m not trying to say that the MFA itself is the root cause of everything wrong with literature, I will say this: it definitely has a role to play, as does the fast paced factory that is the publishing industry. Loved reading this excerpt and am now heading to The New Statesman to read the whole piece.
Thanks for the shot in the arm, Henry.
Part of my own “low-beat literary mood,” at the risk of sounding elitist, comes from seeing literary energy get misplaced - either when readers go for the entertainment-only fiction, or when they approach substantive fiction only to be entertained.