Wordsmiths United

I am what you might call...a traditionalist.
I want my architecture borderline ancient,
my neighborhood infused with quirky history,
my last name changed [eventually],
and my literature presented on pages, not a screen.

My current tome of choice is David Foster Wallace's magnum opus, Infinite Jest. Now, I am not sure if I just have one of those faces you can't help but bother while it's deeply engrossed in belles-lettres or if the 1,079-page, footnote laden, encyclopedic text really is that marvelous to behold, but I cannot tell you how many people, while on my morning commute, have approached me about investing in an e-reader.

At first, the consistent interruption while reading an already complex novel was purely bothersome. But as the comments continued, it became a reluctant game I would play called: Let's See How Many People Say Something Today...

Yesterday morning, while boarding the T, one individual told me he had received Infinite Jest, a few months ago, as a gift and [noticing the placement of my bookmark] wanted to know if I had any tips for getting through it.

I realized then, that for a self-professed bibliophile [and teacher!], my reaction to this whole please-stop-bothering-me-during-the-few-moments-I-have-to-myself-to-read-in-peace-haven't-you-ever-seen-a-big-book-before thing was all wrong.

The fact remains, that whether donning scrubs, a business suit, a grocer nametag, baggy pants, active wear, or a T-driver's uniform, not one person asked me why I would read a book of that size voluntarily, they simply questioned the most efficient way to do so. They were intrigued, moved to say something, and [dear God] it was literature itself that got complete strangers talking.

I did my best to convince him that if you could just muscle your way through to page 223, you won't want to put it down. ..And suddenly we were engaged in a discourse over preconceived literary notions. When did recreational texts become synonymous with relaxation and auto-pilot reading? Why aren't cognitive challenges valued outside of a space where you can receive a grade for it?

Spark Note Version: Nerd-alert/Bookworm Heaven

We are not meant to live in isolation. Even a solitary event like reading is a measured and calculated social interaction between you and the author. At times, we simply need to take a step back from our planned personal moments and realize that perhaps this moment is the one in which we were meant to engage.  If the works of art we so enjoy were destined to live in a desolate vacuum, they never would have been created in the first place.

Life [like art] is not about detachment, it is not about how many trolley stops we can get through before the next person interrupts our myopic views of how this specific instant should play out. It’s about discovery; it is the knowledge that you are not the first [and you will certainly not be the last] individual to appreciate this text. And that the more you engage others, the more you become the reason this piece of art will never be extinguished.

Wordsmiths and logophiles unite,

~carter