{"id":1266,"date":"2010-12-28T10:37:43","date_gmt":"2010-12-28T15:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/julijasukys.com\/?p=1266"},"modified":"2020-01-04T15:20:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T21:20:00","slug":"the-literary-pyramid-scheme-a-few-thoughts-on-book-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/julijasukys.com\/?p=1266","title":{"rendered":"The Literary Pyramid Scheme: A Few Thoughts on Book #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A while ago, I posted a call for volunteers to step forward to help me with a literary experiment<\/a>. I described a letter I received that invited me to become a member of an informal book club. It went on to outline a kind of literary pyramid scheme, whereby I would send out one book and six letters. In return, I could expect to receive a maximum of 36 previously read books selected by strangers from their very own shelves.<\/p>\n

Well, my first book arrived! The package came with a Maryland postmark and inside I found a second-hand copy of Jeffrey Shaara’s Gods and Generals. <\/em><\/p>\n

Lately, my husband and I have been talking about the benefits of e-books as compared to paper ones. One of the things that the arrival of Gods and Generals <\/em>has reminded me of is that paper books come with traces of their former lives and readers. And Book #1 contains some interesting clues as to its history.<\/p>\n

Trace number one:<\/strong> the former owner’s name (female, interestingly) on the first page.<\/p>\n

Trace number two:<\/strong> the book sent contains a business card from the South Mountain State Battlefield in Middletown, Maryland that was likely used as a bookmark. A vestige of some kind of civil war pilgrimage? Did the reader\/owner of this book take it on a trip to places it describes?<\/p>\n

Trace number three:<\/strong> amazingly, this book has been signed by its author — the autograph is dated Sept. 1, 2002. Why, I wonder, would a reader send away an author-inscribed book to a complete stranger?<\/p>\n

All of this reminds me of a 1990s Algerian ra\u00ef<\/em> song sung from the perspective of a beauty parlor chair that tells about all the beautiful women and behinds that have graced it. Or of Fran\u00e7ois Girard<\/a>‘s film The Red Violin t<\/em>hat traces the life of an instrument as it is passed from hand to hand. Tracking the life of an object, it turns out, is another way of writing life.<\/p>\n

Finally, though American Civil War history is far from a major interest of mine, I’m so thankful for this gift, whose conception is a beautiful gesture of love. Jeffrey Shaara wrote this book as a prequel to his father’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Killer Angels<\/em>, that told the story of the Battle of Gettysburg. He wrote it after his father’s death, so the very text is a kind of conversation with the dead, an elegy, or maybe even a love letter.<\/p>\n

Already new avenues for thinking about reading, writing and exchange have opened up for me with this first arrival. I hope more books will come, and with them fodder for a solid essay. If not — if months go by without another book — that will be something to write about too.<\/p>\n

Keep reading. Keep writing. Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n

[Photo: J Jakobson<\/a>]<\/p>\n

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