“Reading a lot makes you stupid,” my dear friend Jan Lokin used to remark, faithfully adding that he derived this insight from his teacher, the legendary legal historian Scheltema.
Of course, you can only afford such a quip if you have great erudition (both gentlemen were famous scholars), just as you can only say that you are indifferent to money if you have no financial constraints.
There has been a lot of commotion lately about children’s poor reading skills. After completing their training, many appear unable to understand a sentence of more than six words, which appears to be partly the result of instruction by teachers who are woefully inadequate in that area.
Hidden away town
I don’t know if that’s a more pressing problem today than it used to be. If I dig into my memory, I don’t think it was any different when I was a boy, although that may be because I went to school in a backward town hidden away near the German border, the name of which I don’t want to remember. I myself was the exception, a pale-nosed bookworm, and therefore experienced a lot of alienation from my comrades, who mercilessly made my life miserable.
That everyone should be able to read and write is a fairly recent idea, which is not yet shared everywhere in the world. In Europe, for many centuries, literacy was something for a small elite, and often a subject of ridicule (‘pen pushers’, ‘ink coolies’); the majority were illiterate. If someone wanted to send a letter, he turned to a specialist who wrote an epistle for a fee. It is unfortunate that current men of letters, who are often not well off, have missed out on this additional income.
Wrong types
Among the better classes, literacy was also in bad odor, and many princes could barely write their names. There were more important things in life, brawling, skirt chasing, drinking parties. It is still somewhat suspicious in those circles if someone harbors intellectual tendencies.
All those who worry about the so-called ‘dereading’ forget how much misery this much-glorified skill has been responsible for. A lot of trouble has arisen because bad types entered politics after learning about some inflammatory scripture, and what about all the wars and massacres that took place after everyone started reading the Bible?
Paolo and Francesca
The most famous story about murder and adultery in world literature is also related to a book. In his Divine Comedy Dante encounters the love couple Paolo and Francesca in the first circle of hell. Francesca was married off to the invalid Gianciotto, lord of Rimini, but had a wonderful relationship with his younger brother Paolo. Gianciotto found out and killed them both. At Dante’s request, Francesca tells how an Arthurian romance was the basis for their misstep.
‘One day we read for pleasure about Lancelot, and how love got hold of him; we were alone and aware of no harm.’ When they come to the passage where Guinevere is kissed by Lancelot, they also kiss each other, and ‘that day we read no further…’ I mean.