Many critics believe that Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” is the greatest novel ever written. I have worked through it at least twice, though I know that I have not read it correctly, so that I might appreciate its greatness. I tended to “speed read” it.
Why approach a classic by “speed reading” it? The classics deserve better.
I like to tell my students at St. John’s University that every truth has a price tag on it, every truth demands some type of commitment. If you are unwilling to pay the price tag or make the commitment, then you will live without that truth.
Arthur Brooks, one of the editors of The Atlantic, suggests that a person reading Dostoyevsky’s novel should just read it for 15 minutes each day. I am trying to do that. I have been reading this great novel for 15 minutes each day, and the experience has really been interesting.
Not only am I noticing scenes that I don’t recall previously reading, but I am much more aware of Dostoyevsky’s skill as a writer than I was from my previous readings. I hope I persevere. I may be learning not only how to read a classic but also how to approach any classic work of art.
Works of art are described as classics because they reveal the truth, beauty, and goodness of reality in a special way. They transcend the period in which they were created and “speak” to 15 ages.
I cannot recall ever reading a book on a time schedule, for example, 15 minutes each day, but putting a time limit on my reading seems to focus my attention. I may try putting time limits on other books, especially classics. Perhaps that is the price tag or commitment I may have to make in order to be enlightened by literature that is a classic.
I find it embarrassing to admit that I visit museums to see great paintings, the way I previously read Dostoyevsky. I race through the museum. One art critic suggested that when you visit a museum, you should concentrate on perhaps just three masterpieces. Any artistic masterpiece deserves our attention. The truth, beauty, and goodness of a masterpiece deserve our attention. The masterpiece is the artist’s gift to us. Our attention could be partially our “Thank you.”
In his excellent little book “What Is God?” philosopher-theologian John Haught writes the following:“The identity of all of us is established by our interaction with the narrative context of our existence. Our sense of the meaning of our lives, if we are fortunate to be conscious of living meaningfully, is a gift of the narrative nest in which we dwell.
“The meaning of our lives is determined by the way in which each of us participates in an ongoing story. And where people today speak of their experience of meaninglessness, isolation, alienation, rootlessness, etc., such experiences can almost invariably be traced to an inability to find some meaningful story in which to situate their lives.
“Belonging to a story wherein the contradictions and conflicts in one’s own life-experience are patterned into a larger harmony by the narrative’s harmonizing of contrast is one of the most intimate experiences we can have of the beautiful” (p. 74).
As I am quoting from Haught the thought has occurred to me that there are many ways to improve and deepen our stories, for example through prayer, reception of the sacraments, reading of Scripture, and I may write about these in a column next week but this particular column is about artistic masterpieces and I am suggesting that one way our stories can deepen is to expose ourselves to the truth, beauty, and goodness present in artistic masterpieces.
I have a habit of asking friends if they are reading anything good, and one of my friends regularly answers, “Just junk!” Though we don’t have to read only masterpieces, why waste our time on junk? We live in the greatest city in the world. Time and money may limit us to some extent in experiencing the classics, but if we believe there are treasures to be enjoyed, if we can be sensitive to the power and availability of great art, we will do what we can to experience the classics.
So far, reading Dostoyevsky’s “Brothers Karamazov” for 15 minutes each day has been both a fascinating and enjoyable experience. I tend always to be in high gear, trying to accomplish several things at once. Some of my closest friends tell me to stop and smell the roses.
I know their advice is good, and I want to follow it, but so far I have not been very successful. Perhaps my 15 minutes each day with Dostoyevsky will be a step in the right direction. I hope so.
Father Lauder is a philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica. His new book, “The Cosmic Love Story: God and Us,” is available on Amazon.com and at Barnes & Noble.