Subject
This honey business (fwd)
Date
Body
From: T. Chapman Wing <tcwing@students.wisc.edu>
From a construction perspective, I think great books ought to come
off as simply enjoyable and compelling to read the first time, the real
work being completely sublimated. Then, if they are truly great, they will
creep up and drag the reader back to the book, whereat she will affix
herself to the page and each word, tongue almost touching the ink, trying
to get up those last drops that went directly from the page to the
unconscious machinations in her mind. Reading Nabokov, then, is like
wading through honey-coated grey matter. The reader will enjoy it, while
always trying to push through that saccharine layer to the cerebral. One
could argue that often times the great book will miss the conscious, the
unconscious, the head and shoulders, and tumble right past the reader onto
the livingroom floor behind her, but that is more a question of the
reader's greatness, not the book's, I think.
T. Chapman Wing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 264-3622
tcwing@students.wisc.edu
From a construction perspective, I think great books ought to come
off as simply enjoyable and compelling to read the first time, the real
work being completely sublimated. Then, if they are truly great, they will
creep up and drag the reader back to the book, whereat she will affix
herself to the page and each word, tongue almost touching the ink, trying
to get up those last drops that went directly from the page to the
unconscious machinations in her mind. Reading Nabokov, then, is like
wading through honey-coated grey matter. The reader will enjoy it, while
always trying to push through that saccharine layer to the cerebral. One
could argue that often times the great book will miss the conscious, the
unconscious, the head and shoulders, and tumble right past the reader onto
the livingroom floor behind her, but that is more a question of the
reader's greatness, not the book's, I think.
T. Chapman Wing
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
(608) 264-3622
tcwing@students.wisc.edu