DORIS LESSINC
19
wouldn't have this kind of interior experience. The first primed books
looked like illuminated manuscripts. It took a long time for people to
make sense of books. There's this very intense personal relationship that
takes place when you read a serious book. You think about it, mull it
over. Most postmodern art or drama or Illovies are all about surfaces,
quick cuts. You never know much about the motivation of the charac–
ters. We're assigning
fllo11 F/l1l1dcys
this year in what used to be called
"Western Civ." We're not allowed
to
call it that anymore. It's called
"The Making of the Modern World." The students are having a terrible
time wi th
fllo11 F/rllldcrs,
whereas when we assigned
The
Soml/I'S
4YOIIII'<!,
Werther,
it was contemporary, it was a soap opera.
Werther
was one obses–
sive thought, they recognized that as modern, but all of Moll's
peregrinations, all of the shifts in her life, her trying to get right with
God, all of the individualislll and interiority that are at the center of
Moll
F/l1l1ders
are absolutely alien. I wamed
to
take over this class in part
because I wanted
to
reshape it as a Western Civ class and call it that again
and give the kids a sense of the exciteillent of reading these books, but I
have no idea if I'll succeed.
Doris Lessing:
13ut you know when sOllle young African teacher in the
bush-and God knows how many there are-dreams of owning books,
it's got nothing to do with the Protestant R.evolution. For some extra–
ordinary reason, they still sec books as a source of knowledge and, of
course, power.
Fred Siegel:
13ut there's a prestige associated with books-and isn't it
derivativc in some sense) It's derivative of the sense of the West that's the
source of knowledge and power, and the reason the West is the source of
knowledge and power goes back to the Protestam R.eforillation. It's what
made the West different. It broke the unity of the medieval world and
the stasis of CatholiciSlll. I may be wrong. I h.lve never spent a minute in
Zilllbabwe.
Doris Lessing:
It could be any Third World country. You see I don't
care if it goes back to myself. I don't carl' if it goes back to Luther or
sOlllething like that. The t:1Ct is the passion tCH learning is surely a valu–
able thing. No?
Fred Ciporen:
I'm publisher of
fJllh/ishcr~,
I
~h'k/}'.
I hear your concern
and the angst, but there is another side
to
it-there are more books pub–
lished today in the United St.ltes than l'vcr before. There are more book
outlets and more books purchased than ever before, and recent consumer
