Why Read?

In my quest to discover how and why things happen, I read. I like to read. I'm all for it. Surprisingly, not everyone is. I know a fellow--I won't mention his name--who in all seriousness said to me, "Man, you read and all you do is regurgitate."

You see, in his mind, learning has been reduced to regurgitation. No exceptions. His claim is that to read and cite sources for your discoveries, as in an essay, is essentially a waste of time, a valueless exercise.

Well, perhaps he's onto something. Or perhaps not.

Readers, no matter their discipline, often are forced to regurgitate knowledge. For example, your doctor usually has a compendium or two handy to help him comprehend what ails you. He's no doubt read them, or you would hope he has. What does it take to be a doctor, twelve years of rigorous academic work?

I'd hate to be treated by one who can't regurgitate. If he knows the basics and is imaginative too, he may be a great doctor.

Regurgitate is an ugly word. It has an ugly sound. In the context of anti-intellectualism, it has an ugly purpose. It is designed to tear down rather than build discourse.

It is designed to blow up reason and enhance ideology.

It is the conservative mantra, a favorite word of those whom would ignore history, for history is purely regurgitation in the conservative mind.

Sadly, it is often taught that way to hungry minds, deadening them in junior high.

Here's what my acquaintance doesn't understand. Reading offers the basics, a foundation for originality. To gain knowledge you must read. If you can then take what you have learned and create by taking a step ahead, devise something new, foment revolution, then you have accomplished something.

But if you do not bother to read, you haven't even a chance to regurgitate. You haven't a chance to go beyond what you think you know.

You haven't a chance to truly learn and be creative in your own right.

I have two reactions to the sort of anti-intellectualism I've just described. First, it makes me angry. Second, I wonder how one lives without reading.

You may not die if you don't read, but you certainly won't live fully, either.

If you're so damn smart that you can get along without reading, you're a unique human being.


What A Writer

what i liked about e.e. cummings
was that he cut away from
the holiness of the
word
and with charm
and gamble
gave us lines
that sliced through the
dung.

how it was needed!
how we were withering
away
in the old
tired
manner.

of course, then came all
the e.e. cummings
copyists.
they copied him then
as the others had
copied Keats, Shelly,
Swinburne, Byron, et
al.

but there was only
one
e.e. cummings.
of course.

one sun.

one moon.


Charles Bukowski

TS