faking it.

[ohjubee]

I just read an essay in the London Review of Books by John Sturrock in favor of faking one's knowledge of books. It's ok, he says, to talk about books you haven't read. In fact, he goes on to argue that it isn't necessary to read things at all--why limit the bounty of literature into Books You've Read and Books You've Not Read

Comments

In Defense of Dilettantism...

[theemu323]

"I don't read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelists' ideas as well as the critics' thinking. With fiction I can never forget that none of it really happened, that it's all just made up by the author." - Tom Townsend, in Whit Stillman's METROPOLITAN