Reading a book as if it had “no introduction, no notes, no aids or guides, no nothing but the naked text” (as William Deresiewicz puts it): such a reading seemed to need a defense. Here is my elaborate one, which seemed in the end to fall into nine sections as summarized below.
Let me note first that searching on “ahistorical reading” led me to a textbook chapter called “What Is Ahistorical Reading?” (in Intro to Poetry, by Alan Lindsay and Candace Bergstrom). The chapter seems to say well what every high-school graduate ought to know, though unfortunately they may not in fact. If you don’t want to slog through what I wrote, read that.
- 1. Some Novels and Novelists.
- These may be read in school or for pleasure – mine, or that of writer and blogger Hai Di Nguyen. There can be epics such as War and Peace, Moby-Dick, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. George Steiner finds the last two comparable. There can be an unreliable narrator.
- 2. Reading Comprehension.
- This may be challenged by some poetry, such as Wordsworth’s, and annotations may not help.
- 3. Reading Without Preconceptions.
- St John’s College accustomed me to this.
- 4. Reading Groups.
- There are many that (thanks to the Catherine Project) I have been able to join and enjoy, all pursued in the St-John’s way as I understand it.
- 5. Story.
- Mythos or logos. We inevitably tell it in our own words (unless perhaps somebody else has fed us the words).
- 6. Giving What Is Wanted.
- “Ask me no questions, and I’ll tell you no fibs.” (To Goldsmith’s comedy She Stoops to Conquer, the saying is traced by Grammarist, which however has “lies” for “fibs”; Wikipedia currently repeats this apparent misquotation, citing Grammarist.) People are trained now to give most of their attention to their mobiles; in school we may be trained to supply what teachers want to hear.
- 7. Historicism.
- I continue not to understand the objection of Leo Strauss to the “historicism” of R. G. Collingwood, but I agree with such ahistorical reading as is practiced at St John’s and was defended in my day (as I recall) by Strauss’s student and my teacher, David Bolotin.
- 8. The Classics.
- There is something to be said for being assigned to read what one might not otherwise. My example is John Donne.
- 9. Re-Enactment.
- Collingwood came to understand history as the re-enactment of thought, but this can be misunderstood, either when reading a poet such as John Donne, or when thinking of a certain major general who happened to read poetry while getting ready for battle.
Beyazpark Liseliler Kafe
Sarıyer, Istanbul
November 25, 2025
Polytropy 