Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00047)

Hi Eldon,
Many thanks for your comments on going beyond words when reading. This has
clarified something that has bothered me for a long time. Other people can
quote passages from books they have read and sound so intellegent. I have
read thousands of books but in the fashion that you describe so that to
quote anything I have to find the book and check out the actual words, yet I
know what the book was about in my own terms. I discovered accidentally a
few years ago that I read in that way when I decided that Martin Bubers 'I
and Thou' had something in it I wanted to know. I began to read and it was
like a brick wall when I looked at the words. No comprehension at all but I
struggled on and then suddenly I found I read the book and knew what he
meant yet the words themselves were as uncomprehensive as before. It then
seemed to become my way of reading. So the idea is to speak about what has
become solid knowledge within one's own reality and speculate about what
hasn't made itself at home yet. It also seem easier to remain detached over
what is really 'known' that what is tentative. If my 'known' is still in the
tentative stage, it is then also insecurely attached to the body of
knowledge that is trying to incorporate it. We can then get feelings of
various kinds if someone questions the validity of this insecure knowledge.
Oh, well, what is they say,
He who knows not, says a lot
He who knows, says nothing.
Much food for thought. Thank you all for your enlightening comments on the
various topics. Hope you realise that I print some of them off for posterity
so that I can refer to the horse's mouth if I have to.
Many thanks, Bee