Pheurto Skeurto

walkwhilereading:

I Was a Teenage Illiterate by Cathleen Schine

““The Idiot” happened. In seventh grade I saw a copy of Dostoyevsky’s novel in the library and, thinking it would be a funny book about a stupid person, began to read it. I read and I read and I read. I developed a crush on Prince Myshkin. He seemed so sweet. I did not know what epilepsy was, and I was too lazy to look it up in the dictionary. I did not know what naïve meant and was, again, too lazy to look it up. But I kept going, in my own naïveté, fascinated and absorbing perhaps a tenth of what was there. A tenth of Dostoyevsky is plenty for a seventh grader, I think. The problem is that now, when as an adult I might understand the other 90 percent, I have no desire ever to read Dostoyevsky again. Ever. Dostoyevsky ruined Dostoyevsky for me.”

Great Essay in this weekend’s New York Times.

Posted 2 years ago — 43 notes