A book is a person
Scott of the increasingly-good Conversational Reading links to a review of two mildly intriguing books that both provoke a discussion on the biographical approach to criticism. Scott shrugs his shoulders and says it�s inevitable that biographical readings predominate even if it�s flawed. One can only concur. Yet even then, when the author�s life is taken into account, it has to be read in the same way as the work; it resists us in the same way. We�re back where we started. The interesting question is: what is left over after a biographical reading? One might say any reading. The answer, I would say, is literature. But maybe that�s just me.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- Scott Pack interview
- At the Mind’s Limits
- Proof, if proof be need be In England, �Irish� …
- Interview with Scott Pack, Head Buyer At Waterstone’s
- The enigma of reading
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