Access to reading
Tutor: James Farha
Age: from 6 to 18
Subject: English
Maximum Attendees: 6
Course Outline:
The purpose of the course is to encourage readers of any age to escape the traditional ‘academic’ and ‘popular’ thinking about literature. I thought about calling this course Evangelical about books but that seemed a bit off-putting so it became the anodyne Access to Reading.
One of the most invidious trends in modern publishing is to make ‘classic novels’ fusty and unappealing by sheathing them in black covers with watercolour faces – covers that fail to catch the eye or spark the imagination. Instead the course steers readers towards making interesting choices in established literature.
Choosing a book, or finding a book can be a difficult thing to do. I prefer to view reading as a journey through the tree tops leaping from one branch to the next, and using each branch to inform and direct the movement to the next one. Sometimes you will read at the very heights of human achievement and sometimes you will scrape its horrid depths but whichever way you turn the tree tops are more than you can use in a lifetime’s continuous journey, book to book to book.
The course is divided into modules (each lasting 1.5 to 2 hours), which can be added one to another and each module is about an hour and half to two hours of material. The first two modules are compulsory, everything else is up to you. This course can be taken individually, but I would be happy to teach it to groups (though not much bigger than 6).
A short history of reading
This module is based around the very simple premise that if you do not understand how or why you are reading, you are less likely to profit from it. A bit of history, a bit of brain science and a couple of chocolate biscuits should get you most of the way there.
Introduction to literature in translation
One of the most indulgent, unpleasant and lazy myths of popular reading culture is that translated literature is not worth reading because too much is lost in translation. If you don’t read a great book because one third is lost in translation then the book has lost nothing, and you have lost two thirds of a cracking book. We will discuss some Russian literature, some Arabic literature and some modern European literature (or you can pick and choose).
Choosing a book
A short introduction to the many ways of seeking out new books. The aim of the module is to explore the pleasures you find in books themselves: tactile, cerebral or simply escapist. We will discuss how and when you buy books and what might influence your choices (and how to buy better, worse or different books). I will send you away with a short reading list and some sources for future inspiration. We can also conduct this session in and around a number of bookshops in Bloomsbury if you prefer. (I would be happy to rename the module, ‘buying books and drinking coffee’.)
Reading aloud
This is an homage to the Victorian reading circle in which small groups, also families, would huddle around a reader (beside a fire); all the words scattered naked on the air as they are meant to be. We’ll start off with some poetry - listening to poets read their work as well as reading some poems ourselves - before moving on to a discussion of the importance of metre in prose. In many ways, this module is more about writing than reading - imagine how good we could be as writers if we wrote to be read aloud. Everyone will have the chance to write something of their own and read it out.
Starting a book club
This module is for anyone who has thought about starting a book club but not known where to do so. A few practical suggestions to get people interested and involved and to keep them that way. Materials for sourcing books will be provided, along with suggestions for locations and how to deal with meeting strangers to talk about words and what they mean to you. At the end we will hold a book club session of our own, so you get your eye in before you set out on your own.
Learning things off by heart
This module ties in with the history of reading above. Picasso said ‘great artists steal’ and writers are no exception. The best way to be properly influenced by a text, is to ingest it fully, to learn it by wrote - you never know when it might be useful. By the age of 18, Harold Pinter knew the text of Hamlet so well that he was able to perform the part of Hamlet on 24 hours notice (the director said “Good performance, but next time try to be nicer to your mother”). We won’t go to that extreme (learning Hamlet that is), but we might consider why it’s good to learn a few poems, and when it’s good to trot them out (and when it’s not!).