This is an interesting quote by James Walker. Obviously, I understand what he's "implying" in saying it. However, I have to wonder what he actually intends to convey to others by implying such a thing-- what does he really "mean" by it?
I know a girl named Janet who, during her high school years, got started out on books by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck; then, she moved on to books that were slightly more "graphic" by writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joseph Heller, John Updike, and E. L. Doctorow. Nothing too odd in any of those choices, I suppose.
But, after a couple of years, Janet graduated to literary works by authors on the order of Isabel Allende, Toni Morrison, Diane Di Prima, and Vladimir Nabokov where the "graphic" passages were a little bit longer and a tad more explicit, or the erotic themes were more central and constant. Still though, that's not so very unusual.
However, still not satisfied, Janet took the next step, and soon began to "get hooked on the harder stuff," devouring many purely "erotic" works by authors like D. H. Lawrence, John Cleland, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, and that ubiquitous author, "Anonymous."
Not too many months later, though, Janet was growing ever more addicted to mainlineing even HARDER materials via personal subscriptions to "Penthouse" and "Nugget" magazines (which she claimed she read in order to "keep up with what other girls are doing"). Her literary tastes had now also moved into the shadowy realm of authors like Pauline Reage, A. N. Roquelaure, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the Marquis de Sade.
I won't say that reading ever "ruined" Janet in any way; but I will say, with some certainty, that even throughout her college years, reading affected and changed Janet's behavior in a number of fairly significant and drastic ways that probably would never have occurred to her, absent the more extreme ideas conveyed to her via the literature she so avidly consumed!
There is almost nothing more powerful than words. As The Book of John says, all things that were ever made, were brought into being by "the Word."
Janet doesn't exactly sound like your average girl... perhaps her "behavior" had nothing at all to do with the literature she chose to read... but the literature was someting that was merely consumed to meet the needs that were already there...
I suppose that could be possible-- that people possess shapeless "needs," lacking any real definition, which lurk beneath the surface, buried in their subconscious minds, just waiting to be defined so they can then, later on, be satisfied.
But, on the other hand, when someone directly says to you, "Hey, I just read about this new, far-out idea. I'm going to have to try this," it seems pretty clear where the ideas are coming from that are "defining" that person's future patterns of behavior.
3 comments:
This is an interesting quote by James Walker. Obviously, I understand what he's "implying" in saying it. However, I have to wonder what he actually intends to convey to others by implying such a thing-- what does he really "mean" by it?
I know a girl named Janet who, during her high school years, got started out on books by the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck; then, she moved on to books that were slightly more "graphic" by writers such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Joseph Heller, John Updike, and E. L. Doctorow. Nothing too odd in any of those choices, I suppose.
But, after a couple of years, Janet graduated to literary works by authors on the order of Isabel Allende, Toni Morrison, Diane Di Prima, and Vladimir Nabokov where the "graphic" passages were a little bit longer and a tad more explicit, or the erotic themes were more central and constant. Still though, that's not so very unusual.
However, still not satisfied, Janet took the next step, and soon began to "get hooked on the harder stuff," devouring many purely "erotic" works by authors like D. H. Lawrence, John Cleland, Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller, and that ubiquitous author, "Anonymous."
Not too many months later, though, Janet was growing ever more addicted to mainlineing even HARDER materials via personal subscriptions to "Penthouse" and "Nugget" magazines (which she claimed she read in order to "keep up with what other girls are doing"). Her literary tastes had now also moved into the shadowy realm of authors like Pauline Reage, A. N. Roquelaure, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, and the Marquis de Sade.
I won't say that reading ever "ruined" Janet in any way; but I will say, with some certainty, that even throughout her college years, reading affected and changed Janet's behavior in a number of fairly significant and drastic ways that probably would never have occurred to her, absent the more extreme ideas conveyed to her via the literature she so avidly consumed!
There is almost nothing more powerful than words. As The Book of John says, all things that were ever made, were brought into being by "the Word."
Janet doesn't exactly sound like your average girl... perhaps her "behavior" had nothing at all to do with the literature she chose to read... but the literature was someting that was merely consumed to meet the needs that were already there...
I suppose that could be possible-- that people possess shapeless "needs," lacking any real definition, which lurk beneath the surface, buried in their subconscious minds, just waiting to be defined so they can then, later on, be satisfied.
But, on the other hand, when someone directly says to you, "Hey, I just read about this new, far-out idea. I'm going to have to try this," it seems pretty clear where the ideas are coming from that are "defining" that person's future patterns of behavior.
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