week1. introduction
My name is Jasmine, I’m currently a 2nd year student doing something in Arts. I took RMST 202 last spring and I thoroughly enjoyed the amount of freedom given to the students. I felt like a lot of the heavy stresses of university were somewhat alleviated through this kind of structure, so I’m hoping to get that same alleviation again.
Recently I’ve been buying used books on amazon and reading those. It’s interesting to see what condition the book is in, whether its in brand-new condition or a little torn-up – but the odd time I get to see a handwritten note in the book or annotations in a book. I just recently got ‘Ways of Seeing’ by John Berger and it came with a very heartwarming note in the front titlepage. When I get these moments, I often wonder where they came from and where and how the book’s first life was lived, or if it had multiple lives before it came to me. On the flip-side – on the understanding that most, if not all, my books will outlive me – it’s interesting to think about how many more lives these books will have. Whether they will sit on shelves for a few generations or if they’ll be in constant cyclic limbo of being read and being finished. Not only this, but I think about the lives that these books will have while in my lifetime, in my ‘ownership’ of sorts.
The same idea of ‘multiple lives’ or succession of stories and ownership can be said about literature I believe. Often, the author and their context, background, environment can inform the literature that the produce/write, but does that literature have multiple lives? I do believe so. Literature often remains even after the author dies, after its producer dies, it exists in multiple realms, perspectives, and interpretations.
Another reason I chose this course was because I like the idea that I am allowed to think beyond the questions handed to me and even go off on unedited tangents. While there is a ‘constraint’ scheme in this hopscotch structure, it feels more freeing than not. Interpretation and [mis]understanding is accepted and even encouraged in this kind of course, whereas in other areas of education, these practices are not nearly as acceptable – perhaps: a restraint rather than a constraint.
My question for you is this: how many of your books (or other forms of literature) have a previous life? Or, some kind of signifier or clue alluding to its previous ownership.
I look forward to reading and discussing with everyone!
3 replies on “week1. introduction”
Hi Jasmine,
I also took RMST 202 with Jon last year, it will be nice to see you again this term! I took this course for a similar reason as you, I really enjoyed the course last year and am also hoping to have that carry over to this course, which I’m sure it will!
For your question, I cannot put an exact number on it, but many of the books I have were passed down to me from my grandpa and dad. My grandpa was a principal so he has always had a passion for reading and academia. Many of his favourite books he gave to my dad when he was younger, and then my dad has shared them with me and my siblings. I hope that my siblings and I carry this on and in the future we will have a big family book collections from different generations.
I really liked your comments on the multiple lives of books, I have never considered a book to have a ‘soul’. By this I mean something similar to the idea of ‘old’ or ‘new’ souls that people like to tag themselves with, and even though a book only has one body, we cannot know the life it lived with its past owner (unless we ask them though).
I think buying old books is also more renewable, so its great that you buy used books for that purpose too. However, I am a little ashamed to admit I usually buy my books used, but I have also read many books that have been passed down to me by my parents. Those books certainly have had another life, as they often had that old book smell, and some notes here and there.
Hi Jasmine,
I’m Ashley–nice to meet you!:) Thanks so much for your thoughts for this week! I loved the question you posed for us–I have never been asked this before, and quite frankly, have never thought of this before until now! It made me think about how “alive” books and literature truly is–how it passes from person to person, and varies in interpretation or emotion it brings forth for others.
When I think about books with “past lives,” the first few I can honestly think of are some I ordered second-hand off of Amazon. For one book I ordered (I can’t remember what book it was for the life of me), when I opened the front page, it came from a library in a small village in Northern Scotland with pencil-written loans that dated all the way back to the 1980’s–I thought that was pretty cool to think that it somehow, after all this time, ended up at my front door. I also have a few books from family friends–these books have been passed down from family to family, and they thought I could make use of them. These are some of the books I hold closest to me; their impact on others, the stories associated with them, and how they have travelled through time:)
See you around!