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Originally Posted by gmw
These days I do a lot of re-reading, and it highlights some things, like: memory is fallible; we change; all books have faults; sometimes the faults don't matter. All simple and obvious lessons, but nothing drives them home so well as experiencing them.
And sometimes the faults do matter. Sometimes understanding what we missed earlier is part of our own development, or as noted above, just part of understanding that we have developed; I'm not the same person I was 30 and 40 years ago, and this is a good thing. There was so much (good and bad) then that I didn't recognise back then and there was a lot that I read that I just sort of took on faith.
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I don’t reread much, the whole “so many books, so little time” syndrome. But I’ve rediscovered the Victorian novels in recent years and they’ve been a revelation to me. They are entirely new books to this entirely different reader. I can’t agree more with you. My appreciation now is so much deeper and richer; it’s a great compensation for being older.
And part of what I missed entirely, or I’d prefer to think only saw tangentially/subliminally, is the social context of the books. There are entire realized worlds in these books, if uncomfortable, even offensive ones. I certainly didn’t pick up on the attitude toward the Acadians when I was a girl reading Anne, but it jumped out at me this time.
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In these discussions we get to see books through the eyes of others, and with the help of others get a more complete historical and social background. What we learn may change us,
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This is one reason why I value actual discussions, as opposed to reviews. It’s in the examining of our own views in the light of others’ knowledge and experience and insight that our own understanding is enhanced.