runs

[Terrance]

"Burns, Erik" wrote:
> 
> Paul wrote (quoting VN);
> 
> >"Incidentally, I use the word READER very loosely. Curiously enough, one
> >cannot READ a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major
> >reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader.
> 
> thanks - that IS the cite i was thinking of when i wrote "all reading is
> rereading." I knew he'd writ *something* like that.
> 
> much obliged.
> 
> etb

N never says anything like "all reading is rereading." In fact, the
point of his statement about rereading a book is nearly the opposite.
What he is talking about is good reading and good writing. A good reader
of good literature rereads. 

Why am I being a stickler about this? Because the claim that **ALL*
reading is rereading implies that one can not read a book without
rereading it. This is an absurd claim. Even the claim that one has not
REALLY read _Bleak House_ until or unless one has reread it is
ridiculous. N is giving advise. Good advice. Well, most of it. Some of
what is he says is simply crap. Some, I think, might make some sense if
we were listening to him and were able to see his facial expressions and
gestures. Some, like the kind of stuff we read from Pynchon or most
anyone with a sense of humor, is silly. Taken seriously (i.e. the
comment on Kafka, Thomas Mann,  and Rilke) some of what he says is
scandalous.