Reading Narrative Fiction, Identity and the Humane Society

On our Room To Write Sister Blog I have  posted a report  (Erasing the Chasm Between the Bench and the Dock:  An Experience in Boston, USA) on the visit made by Avril and me to Boston to explore the Changing Lives Through Literature project masterminded by Professor Bob Waxler.  

Now, the presiding genius of that project -  Professor Bob Waxler of the University of Massachusetts - brings us his new book which goes even further in helping us in the wider society to understand the significance  of reading in our present day reductive, impersonalised  culture,

Robert P Waxler of
 University of Massachuset

Bob's new book The Risk of Reading (Great title!) defends  the idea that deep and close readings of literature can help us  understand ourselves and the world around us. It explores some of the meaning and implications of modern life through the deep reading of significant books.

He  argues that we need "fiction" to give our so-called "real life" meaning and that reading narrative fiction remains crucial to the making of a humane and democratic society.

Beginning by exploring the implications of thinking about the importance of story in terms of "real life", The Risk of Reading focuses on the importance of human language, especially language shaped into narrative, and how that language is central to the human quest for identity.

Bob argues that we are "linguistic beings," and that reading literary narrative is a significant way to enrich and preserve the traditional sense of human identity and knowledge. This is especially true in the midst of a culture which too often celebrates visual images, spectacle, electronic devices, and celebrity.

Reading narrative fiction, in other words, should be considered a counter-cultural activity crucial on the quest to "know thyself." 

Bob Waxler asserts that reading literature is one of the best opportunities we have today to maintain a coherent human identity and remain self-reflective individuals in a world that seems particularly chaotic and confusing. 

This book promises to be a great contribution to the debate on the role of narrative fiction in modern society.

Very highly recommended.

Postcard 8: Stories from an Irish Bay

Postcard 8 

Leading to the past; leading to the future

(work in progress...)

Stories from an Irish Bay

The Bay

Mirror boats on glittering tide 

jagged staithes on long sea-legs

fluttering in the shining water

Bay goes back to sea war status -

Spaniard does for English sea lord

Punching ship with high-placed cannon 

Further on to hungry people

boats in pawn, nets laid down

starving families eating seaweed

First the green upon the tide

then resort to slimy sea stuff

not unlike the bad potato

Then tipped into early graves -

clap -board coffins, open-ended

used and re-used many times

Setting out on crowded vessels

for a far and foreign country -

even to a Texas homeland

Here a woman out of Texas -

face a map of life well lived -

happy now to fly her Cessna

in the skies

above

the

tide

Inspired by : 

Me - Just Sitting by the Bay

John Minihan's Cork Introduced by William Trevor

    The Irish Country House Peter Somerville Large

  The Coast of West Cork Peter Somerville Large

Information about woman flier Margaret Thomas Warren