"I reassured her that in some respects, making your way through the world's great literature is a numbers game: Someone twice your age has simply spent more time on the planet-and has therefore had more time to turn pages. But no number of hours can fill every gap in the knowledge of a mortal reader, even one who's a professional critic."
"On the happy flip side, in this line of work, you never stop learning. The English theater critic Irving Wardle once described criticism as "conducting your education in public." And this week in The Atlantic, Robert Rubsam wrote that every year, he gives himself some kind of reading challenge. "These are sometimes small-read more poetry; read older books-and sometimes quite large," he explains. "Part of my annual resolution is to devote each summer to filling in a major blind spot.""
No mortal reader can consume all literature; accumulated time increases exposure, so older readers often have read more. Critics and specialists can still harbor substantial gaps, such as inability to read the French canon or unfamiliarity with popular contemporary genres. Targeted, achievable objectives help address those blind spots. Criticism functions as public education, and recurring reading challenges—ranging from small shifts to ambitious projects—can broaden knowledge. Dedicating specific periods, like summers, to remedial reading can fill major deficits. Prioritizing older, culturally important, or widely recommended works advances both breadth and depth of literary understanding.
Read at The Atlantic
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