Intellectuality Litmus : Part 1

I recently read an article from NY Times titled It’s Not You, It’s Your Books.

I wanted to comment on it.

Warning: Pride and prejudice ahead!

So, here it goes…

At the risk of sounding pretentious, let me declare that I do have low opinion of people whose favourite “book” is Archie comic-book and those who feel that it is unfair of Nobel committee to have not honoured Sidney Sheldon on account of his literary brilliance!

But can this be a true yardstick for gauging emotional compatibility?

My answer is YES.

I suppose my outlook is parochial but I can’t see how I can spend my life with a person whose only diet is Mills and Boons or some other publication to that effect (including Jeffery Archer, Sidney Sheldon’s etc.). I don’t mind people who read Somerset Maugham and Mills and Boons with equal interest…at least they have gone through a been-there-done-that stage.

The article says that,

The author (a person named as Augusten Burroughs) recalled a date with one Michael, a “robust blond from Germany.” As he walked to meet him outside Dean & DeLuca, “I saw, to my horror, an artfully worn, older-than-me copy of ‘Proust’ by Samuel Beckett.” That, Burroughs claims, was a deal breaker. “If there existed a more hackneyed, achingly obvious method of telegraphing one’s education, literary standards and general intelligence, I couldn’t imagine it.”

Well, some people do like Proust especially an artfully worn, ancient copy…you can’t hold that against somebody!… So what if the copy is beautifully worn out?! I think the message it gives out is “Hey I like Samuel Beckett's work…Would love to discuss it with you. ”

Bottomline: It attracts people of same kind to interact.

I would respect a person's wish to not to interact with me because of the books I read...perfectly understandable.My distaste to Archer or Sheldon books may not make a favourable impression on him/her.

Someone did point it out to me that there is more to life than Marquez, Camus, William Blake or Hemingway. But fortunately or unfortunately I end up sleeping with Orwell, Marquez, Pamuk or Chekhov etc. tightly clutched my hands.It is not how it sounds though… :P. After one or two hours of togetherness usually the book falls from my hand on the floor. The experience of reading that genre is thoroughly relaxing.

Jokes apart….. for me books are an indication of a person’s intellect…language of books is of course immaterial…A person reading Yugant by Iravati Karve in Marathi is equally interesting as a person reading books by George Orwell in English.

All said and done Iravati Karve or George Orwell are not the only indicator of a person’s intellect. Don’t get me started on music! (That is Part 2 in the making.)