Ill-read by Moonlight

Once upon a time, there was a woman who really did consider herself an erudite, educated person. She had studied Latin. She not only liked subtitled movies, but in many ways, preferred them. She lapped up the classics.

Or did she?

Despite all my best intentions, this is a blog dedicated to my attempts to redress the gaping holes in my cultural knowledge. Therefore it will be, in character:

1) Confessional: It takes a big step of courage and a loss of face to admit which books you have never made it through, particularly when your bravado has sort of... implicated that you have indeed read that book, seen that movie. There's no shame here precisely because we ALL have something to be embarrassed about.

2) Sporadic: One of the reasons why I don't read the classics as often as I should, but instead reach for Dalziel & Pascoe (a vastly superior detective series) is that it takes a long time to read them. They are NOT light reading. Not that there's owt wrong with that--in fact, there's a great deal to be said for simply reading for pleasure, learning, and enjoyment, and this website is not to disparage that.

3) Critical: Why are "the classics" given that status? Is it really going to shape my life and thinking in a more profound way to read Dostoyevsky than Harry Potter? I met someone once, in Madrid, who really didn't understand why you would waste time on HP when you could spend your life trying to make it through the great canons of literature. I personally, generally, do not agree (and nor do others). Instead, I think reading is about joy and education, and you can get both from all sorts of books. However, I think my critical eye and reading skills are underdeveloped, and that they are slowly improving given how important they are for my chosen field of work. Therefore I don't want to read them simply to have read them, but also to discern why they have such an established place in the pantheon of "books you should have read."*

4) Amateur: This blog is about all sorts of "classics". It is also to be written by and for all sorts of folks. While my field is not traditionally part of the literary field, it is immensely word-intensive, focusing on meaning, terms of art; what is meant and understood by a phrase, and what a reasonable person could understand by it. However, I have no technical training, unlike many of the friends who I hope to be involved with the project. The trick is to get over the fear of not-really-knowing-what-you're-talking-about and immerse yourself in the words and your reactions to them... and pick up some tools for future readings / viewings / listenings. Plus, we're all equally screwed when it comes to sound and screen... ha!

All aboard! Full steam ahead this weekend and onwards...

*While I appear to be referring to books all the time, this illiterate blog will deal with albums we should know and love, movies we should have seen and swooned at... however, it's just easier to deal with one medium for this statement of purpose, as it were.