For Rudy Carrera, who might be the one person who will appreciate this. I just came across this in my notebook: What came first, the desire to read, or the religious book that made the ability to read necessary? It’s a silly question, perhaps. But perhaps not. Reading is not a simple thing to do. It’s not like banging two rocks together. It is a complex activity to perform, and it takes skills. It’s not natural – in the sense that it’s not encoded in our genes. Each new generation has to learn it all over again. It is an acquired ability, and there is nothing not civilised about it. There is a history of reading that defines what reading means, and which defines our reading activity. Quite simply: What it means to read. And reading – in this sense – is a religious activity. Reading is something practised by what Islam calls “The People of the Book”, i.e. Muslims, Jews and Christians, and it is born from exegesis. How to read means how to read the holy books, and then everything else. To understand different layers of meaning. How to interpret. How to be subtle. The holy books of these 3 religions are the foundations upon which our reading is built, not just our reading of other books or texts, but the way that we construct meaning in general. Rephrased: Did we invent God to have something important enough to read about – or did God give us a reason to start reading?
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 22:47:55 +0000
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