Re-reading

Indeed it has been so, so very long since my last post. A number of factors have contributed to this. Over the summer, as I may have mentioned, my grandfather, the most avid reader of my blog, passed away. This has made writing somewhat more of a challenge since I have felt that my words would simply spin into more of a dark vortex than usual. Still, this was only a challenge to my motivation. The challenge to my actual ability to write was my teaching schedule. It may surprise you to know that from September to December of 2011 I read and wrote more than I ever have in my entire life! Tragically, I sense that the writing I did during that time will spend even less time in the light of day than this blog. But such is the nature of written feedback in composition courses. As wonderful as the experience was to teach on two campuses simultaneously (San Diego Christian College and my alma mater, Point Loma Nazarene University), I will never accept an offer to teach four composition courses in a single semester; as Boromir might say, "this is folly!"
Fortunately, my schedule this semester is significantly slackened, which should give me time to catch up on the good 'ol blog as well as prepare the paper that I will be delivering at the International Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo Michigan in May. Unfortunately I can only attribute my silence so far in 2012 to a general laziness or at least a lack of momentum. Fortunately again, I have found a topic which shall hopefully kickstart a more consistent blogging schedule; I have begun to reread one of the few books for which I do so regularly, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
I could ramble for hours about how much I love this series (as you may already be aware) but I've been trying to space out my fanboy posts so far and I'd like to continue to do so (if for no other reason than to make sure that I don't lose material!). Over Christmas break I had been listening to a series by Corey Olsen, aka The Tolkien Professor and his talks drew my attention to interpretations of Tolkien's tale that I had never considered before. It doesn't take much to encourage me to re-read the series and I soon decided that it was about time to do so. Much to my pleasure, as I read I have been richly rewarded with new insights, some thanks to Dr. Olsen, and some that have simply arisen as a result of the re-reading process. This got me thinking about the concept of re-reading in general and how rarely we actually bother doing so.
I have heard numerous accounts of superfans finishing the Harry Potter series and starting again back at the beginning and this always bothered me, not the least because I firmly believe that if one is going to dedicate one's time to reading one might as well read the best material available rather than material of mediocre quality (more on this debate in a later post. This is just some of my Rowling-angst coming out). But as I consider my response to this, I realize that, based on my construction of this ethic, I cannot necessarily justify my re-reading of Tolkien. It is given, of course, that Tolkien is an infinitely more skilled and polished writer than Rowling, but the truth of the matter is: I spend far more time re-reading Tolkien than I do, say, Dickens or Malory or even Shakespeare. Of course I have been nourished on the very scholarly mantra of "to fully understand a work one must read, and re-read, and even read a third time." Yet, I always feel that I am somewhat deficient in my commitment to rereading. Some of this is because of time; perhaps the habits formed during semester-study keeps me from flipping back to the beginning of a book and starting over.
This habit is even more disturbing considering I am fully aware of the value of re-reading. The first time that I read The Scarlet Letter in high school, I couldn't stand it. When I read it again in Dr. DeSaegher's American Writers I course, Hawthorne's novel enthralled me. I had a similar experience with Heart of Darkness, but as my blog on that work has shown, subsequent readings revealed the vast imagination and intense depth of imagery that made me love Conrad's work.
Why, then, don't I read everything again? As I look at my bookshelves I realize that it is, in many ways, a trophy case. Each volume upon the wall is a land conquered, a worthy adversary vanquished, a feat accomplished. Yet what is stopping me from reading Great Expectations again? I suppose the easiest answer is also a question: "who has the time?" At the moment I would be much better off rereading Malory and Chrétien de Troyes than Dickens. After all, I have a paper to write and it most definitely has a deadline (do or die on May 11!). Should I be disturbed that I reserve more time for rereading something with less literary merit? Many avid readers who are more disciplined than me probably read works like that of Tolkien to take a break from the more serious things that they read. Me? I've had to force myself to give up watching sci-fi shows on Netflix for Lent just to force myself to do some productive reading. Hopefully this discipline forms a habit and will eventually lead to some casual and simultaneously productive re-reading (I'm thinking "The Rape of Lucrece" is a good candidate, don't you?).