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Progymnasmata

Cigarettes & Moby-Dick - OR - The Epistemology of Re-Reading

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by
The Comedian
, 10-20-2010 at 10:15 AM (2295 Views)
The other day I pick up my copy of Moby-Dick and leafed through its pages. They were heavily annotated in #2 pencil and smelled of old cigarette smoke. The binding was broken in many places. Pockmarks dot one page, the victim of stray ash from a cigarette that I was smoking at the time.

For about three years, I smoked cigarettes. Not many -- about 2-4 per day. Make that 2-4 per night. Why did I start? So that I could stay awake to read Moby-Dick at night. No, I didn't think it was boring -- sheesh! -- I liked the book a lot.

I was twenty-two and in graduate school; I was teaching, reading, writing. My days and nights were bound by words and meaning. Tiring work. So when coffee and push-ups didn't work (I used to do push-ups, sets of 30, to stay awake too), I started smoking Winston Lights in order to keep reading deep into the New England night.

. . . . .

I started to reread Moby-Dick last night -- my first read of that book since I illegally smoked (in the grad-dorm) to overcome sleep and join the search for the White Whale.

In rereading that book, I was also rereading that episode of my life: solitary, idealistic, open, and bound to a hope that something will come of this advanced study in literature.

Aside: I've come to the conclusion that the more responsibilities we have, the more free we become. But this is the subject for another blog. End Aside

And so yesterday evening was a sort of double-reread of a book and of me. . . .recursive and circular loops through life, language, and story.

. . . . .

I've often wondered about how valuable being widely read truly is to an individual. Some Born-Again Christians that I know have significant parts of Bible memorized, they've read them so often. And while I'm not attracted to their dogma, I greatly admire the Zen-ish quality of their reading. To know one thing as perfectly as possible. To find familiar beauty continuously so wonderful and moving. . . .surely this has a value that is not well seen by most of us.

The Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, near the holiday of Sukkot, observes when Jews start the annual cycle of rereading Torah from the beginning. To observe this holiday, young members of the synagogue are consecrated into the fold of congregation. A year, a book. Every year, the same book.

Simchat Torah usually falls in October. My oldest daughter was consecrated last weekend. She sang the the shema prayer in Hebrew to those attending the service.

. . . . .

There is an intellectual spirituality in rereading. At least, I know there is for me. And I can hardly describe what it is or why it happens.

Sometimes I walk the edge of my new fence and look just a few yards out into my familiar woods and wonder if I really know anything about them -- the trees and grasses, the leaves and leaf-mold, the nests new & used.

Updated 10-20-2010 at 09:26 PM by The Comedian

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  1. Virgil's Avatar
    Anything that was a fine read the first time is an even better read the second time. You're right. Great novels should be read at least twice if not more so. I think I've read Conrad's Heart of Darkness four times. There is always something more to see, and once you know the story you can observe freely the author's craft.

    I loved Moby Dick too. It's a hard novel and most don't like it. Faulkner said that Moby Dick was the one novel he wish he had written, or something like that. It is an incredible read. I don't think Melville ever came close to matching it. It's probably time to read it again. That first chapter is one of the truely great chapters in literature. I've visited that many times.

    Congratulations to your daughter. That's wonderful. How old is she?

    Sets of 30 pushups? How many sets did you do?
  2. JuniperWoolf's Avatar
    I re-read books a lot. I've read The Grapes of Wrath six times and most of my comics a couple dozen. You're right, every time I read The Grapes of Wrath it brings back memories of sitting on the front lawn in my lawn chair with a fish pattern and talking to people that I know who drive past (sweet hobby in a small town, sitting in a random location and talking to people). Good times.
  3. prendrelemick's Avatar
    I like the thought that when you re read something, you are transported back to the time and person you were when you first read it. Moby Dick is just the kind of book for this to happen.
  4. mtpspur's Avatar
    I re read Captain Blood evey three years or so. Currently re-reading A Study in Scarlet after many years. As to the Bible pretty sure I have read it completely at least seven times and certain portions over and over again. Always something new to be found there. Congratulations ot oyur daughter as well.
  5. qimissung's Avatar
    That would be To Kill a Mockingbird or Pride and Prejudice for me.

    What a tender moment, with your daughter. Thank you for sharing this thoughtful post.
  6. TheFifthElement's Avatar
    You know, I've never read Moby Dick. I tried once, but wasn't in the right mood (sometimes you have to be in the right mood for a certain type of book, right?) and gave up. What you say about it here makes me want to read it though. I'm sure I'll get round to it, eventually.

    I do re-read, though sparsely as there always seems to be so many books to read. The Magic Toyshop is my favourite re-read, but I'm adding to the list. Catch 22 will be a re-read book, as is Grendel and Lost Paradise (already I have read it 5 times.). There is something in the familiarity of the words, something deeper in the reading, something which connects you with a fine, invisible thread to the you that read it in the past. It is something that fascinates me about rituals, how it connects us to the past and helps us to create an illusion that, because one day is like the last, we are somehow timeless, immortal. There is something to be said for all of that.
  7. The Comedian's Avatar
    @ Virgil -- She's six and was really nervous. Oh and I did a lot of push ups in grad school --

    Sometimes I even did this routine: cup of coffee --> 30 push ups --> cigarette. Now that got the heart rate up!

    @Prend -- the rereading of the self is one of the more spiritual elements of reading. It's also one reason why I always underline, annotate, dog-ear my books. . . . when I reread these books I get to reread myself more clearly and directly.

    @ Fifth -- "There is something in the familiarity of the words, something deeper in the reading, something which connects you with a fine, invisible thread to the you that read it in the past. It is something that fascinates me about rituals, how it connects us to the past and helps us to create an illusion that, because one day is like the last, we are somehow timeless, immortal. There is something to be said for all of that." -- Thank you for those lines. Beautifully written and moving.
  8. qimissung's Avatar
    I agree with you about re-reading yourself, although I never thought about it that way before. I don't anotate my books though. It isn't because I care about writing in books, I just find it really distracting, like reading when the T.V. is on or when people nearby are talking loudly.

    Have you ever talked about that with your students? I'm wondering how I can convey to kids who freely confess they don't want to read the ineffable joy of re-reading yourself?