Wanderlust for Everywhere
Confession: I read course textbooks for fun. If magazines were my friends, novels my family, then textbooks would be the old wise masters I read about who know things and sit cross-legged on the grass with cheeky grins. I find that novels involve the reader to an extent that they morph into one; as the novel progresses so does the reader, while magazines are merely short shallow ramblings. Textbooks, in the contrary, demand focus as they project mountains of data, history, ideas, definitions and analysis to the student, almost an outer body experience as one listens in awe, exposed to the different truths of the world.
One textbook I am currently enjoying is An Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory by Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle. In the opening of chapter seven, the first sentence goes, "Stories are everywhere."* I was flabbergasted when I read that. Indeed, everywhere is a place I'd like to go.
* Bennett, Andrew and Royle, Nicholas. An Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory. Great Britain, UK: Pearson Education Limited, 2009, 54.
Your writing and the picture are so harmonious. Uplifting my early Tuesday morning spirit!
ReplyDeleteStories really do exist in every crack and crumble, every ray of light and every shadow.
I've always fawned over biology textbooks myself - most people cringe at the thought, but they are so interesting and the information has been very useful!
xo
Thank you, Amy. Biology textbooks are the bomb!
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