NOTES ON READING


Calm before the storm. I feel the calm while on vacation, unwinding, shrugging off the last strands of stress, learning life's lessons from my life professor, watching the balance of nature and its balancing act with the unnature, right here in the middle of the jungle, somewhere east, somewhere north, and I ask myself why can't it be this way everyday?, and myself answers the I, Because sometimes we do need the storm.

And while stress-free, let me bore you with what does not bore me, let the bread of life be broken, let the cup of literature be poured...

Lesson One: Reading

- Since I was a kid, I developed this habit of smelling what I read. That was how I immersed myself with the lives of the novels' characters, a merging of my reality with their fantasy (or was it the other way around?), a marriage of their inspiration with my awe. Then I heard this from my life professor: Somebody told her the immersion is more fulfilled by a sense of touch, drawing an open palm over the pages, feeling the texture of the newsprint. What fetish! My psychology professor in college said that our "ends" have the greatest feelings because they have the greatest concentration of nerves. Now I do believe l.p. when she said, Feel them stories, learn the plot thru an open palm.

- Poet Belle was right when she said that poems should be read aloud. There is no other way, I insist, damned be the listeners if they didn't like our squeaky voices, it is in the poet's pen and not in the reader's vocal chords that one poem is judged versus the next.

- Greek plays are read like no other. When you watch a Greek tragedy on stage, you notice a stark difference between the protagonists and the chorus; the former are elevated. There is, of course, a "dramatic" reason here, essentially "tragic", and that is this: the protagonists are bigger than life while the chorus are like you and me; the former's physical elevation are made possible by the high footwear they are made to sport while the chorus people are barefoot. Translate this to reading: When you read the part of the protagonists, the volume should be made louder, remembering that they are bigger, louder than us mortals.

Lesson Two: On Gaining Wisdom

L.P. told me there is a difference between gaining knowledge and gaining wisdom, one being quantity, the other, quality. That true? There was this short story (I forgot the names of the title/author) where the father-in-law of the lead character, an avid reader of books, was said to have worshipped nothing else but knowledge. He practiced no faith but he did not doubt the book's ability to enrich him. He was supposed to have a bookstore called A Place of Worship. Hmmm, knowledgeable or wise? Quantity or quality?


Lesson Three: Reading won't hurt. Read the writings on the wall, let Sir J read your thoughts, read B's poems, Ma'am J's short stories, by reading we gain experience, read this blog, read between the lines, read my lips, read.

And what are you reading now?