In Defense of Difficult Reading

Let’s read a review of a new book: What’s So Great About the Great Books? Why You Should Read Classic Literature (Even Though It Might Destroy You) by Naomi Kanakia, and then discuss her ideas.

From the book:
“The moment we come into contact with other people, we realize that the world precedes us. We come into a rich world that’s already full of preexisting ideas, which we discover through conversation, through the media, and through books. We determine our morality not in isolation but in relation to this world and to the choices it offers us.”

From the review:
“Kanakia contends that Great Books have earned their status because of their integrity. They are, she writes, “unflinchingly honest.” They have self-searching “rigor,” “a certain seriousness,” and “sensitivity.” Reading them can cultivate the same in us. More refreshing and, for me, unexpected, is her insistence that our commitment to diversity should include the diversity of other times. This “conversation with the past” adds depth and dimension to our own perceptions of the world. Indeed, reading these classics helps us to better understand our embeddedness in a long and complex context:”

https://theamericanscholar.org/in-defense-of-difficult-reading/

~Michael