Salubrious syllabus

[Charles J. Shields]

Thanks, friends, for suggested reading list. This is going to open worlds
for me.

I agree that starting the background instead of the foreground seems
backwards (being left-handed, I'm used to that). And I've always responded
enthusiastically to Chet Baker's adjuration: "Let's get lost!"

But think of this: Imagine you've enrolled in a math class and you purchase
the text. Instead of beginning at the beginning, you study the last four or
five chapters. What a puzzlement! What alphabet soup! How can anyone make
sense of this runic silliness? But you try to absorb as much as possible.

And then you go to chapter 1. And lo, it seems so easy to grok. Well, it's
still new information, but now that you've seen the really recondite stuff,
it doesn't seem so bad.

This approach isn't my idea. I owe it to a ten-year-old. As a boy, I had a
friend who always read a chapter ahead.

"Why?" I asked.

"So I know what the teacher is going to talk about."

Smart guy. Teaches physics at a university.

Best,

Charles

‹ www.writingkurtvonnegut.com

A Biographer's Notebook