Last week was the two hundredth birthday of Charles Dickens. Pardon me while I geek out. His writing is something of an acquired taste as he demands a level of concentration on the part of the reader that is rarely exercised these days. In a word, he is not “user-friendly”.
In Grade 5 I was in an accelerated reading group. Actually it was a group of two: Cameron Hayden and me. It was an odd pairing as just the month before he had instigated a spectacular bullying incident resulting in certain behaviours I have well in hand now, thanks to modern science and big pharma. Our first reading assignment was David Copperfield.
Now you may be expecting me to launch into what a transformative experience it was, how it introduced me to a world struggling with the industrial revolution and sowing the seeds of social consciousness.
Ah, no. The first thing I learned was that voracious reading is not the same as comprehensive reading. I’d burned through everything written by Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and even JRR Tolkien but to say I paddled around on the surface is an understatement. More like boogie boarding along the wet sand of a receding tide.
The second thing I learned was my third favourite comic book series, Classics Illustrated, included an adaptation of David Copperfield. Which is how, boys and girls, I got through Grade 5 with minimal hair loss and almost no urge to huddle in a corner, cover my head or whimper softly when introduced to anyone named Cameron.
Over the years I have learned to appreciate Mr. Dickens, to parse his works down to the bone without a comic book crutch. Since leaving university I’ve learned dissection may be essential to understanding an underlying structure but it’s totally useless as preparation for everything life layers onto that frame. To put it another way, as Karl’s brother brother Groucho once said, ‘anyone who can see through a woman is missing a lot’.
The more I get to see this world, the more I see how much Dicken understood people from the inside out. The structure of our lives has changed as have our clothes and attitudes. We’re physically bigger, healthier, wealthier, better educated than the rookery residents of Dicken’s time.
But we still bully, bluster and exploit. We still base our actions today on the tragedies of yesterday. We’re still not sure if we’ll be the hero of our own life’s tale. We still have potential for salvation. Through Dickens we can see how much the world has changed but how little we have.
(side note: if your sole experience of the written form of Chuck’s stuff is “A Christmas Carol” or you’ve tried repeatedly to stay awake past the first paragraph of Oliver Twist, try listening to one of the many excellent audio versions. He made most of his money doing readings and his writing seems designed to be read aloud. There are audio books available from the library or from free audio sites like Librivox )
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