HAPPY 163RD BIRTHDAY!!!

Why should we all be readers?

My original idea for this post was to regale you with interesting facts about our literary lady of the year, Edith Wharton. Then I read her 1903 essay, The Vice of Reading, and had to change tack.¹ Wharton's sharp wit and love of books shine through this essay, which made me laugh as I read.

How often do we see videos, TikToks, and posts about the value of reading? Or how some reading has more merit than others (think romance v. classics). Or even the constant discourse around reading goals or having to be seen reading the newest "it" book. I can't help but wonder how she would have responded to our world of bookish social media. What would she make of BookTok, BookTube, and all of us readers here on Substack (we need a fun name - BookStack? SubReads? something!) How would she drag the "Thought Daughters" and "Litbros" of BookTok and Booktube? I can hear her screaming, "Turn the book around," at every BookTok reviewer who thinks hiding the title until the very end is clever (like we can't hit fast forward or, better yet, swipe away). The performative reader gets no love from Mrs. Wharton.

Edith opens her essay with a discussion of the vices and virtues of reading. She notes that reading "trash" is a vice we can all agree on. But she adds, “In the matter of reading, the real offenders are not those who restrict themselves to recognized trash.” So don’t worry; she’s not coming for romance readers, and trashy books have their place. For Wharton, reading "already ranks with such seasoned virtues as thrift, sobriety, early rising, and regular exercise.”² She goes on to say, "The reader, accustomed to the incense of uncritical applause, not unnaturally looks on his occupation as a noteworthy intellectual achievement." Reading is generally considered a virtue, but for Wharton, some readers are more virtuous than others. Her praise of reading doesn't go on for long before she starts to distinguish between two types of readers: the born reader and the mechanical reader.

Wharton defines the born reader as someone who does "real” reading: "Real reading is a reflex action; the born reader reads as unconsciously as he breathes." The born reader doesn’t log the hours they read or set aside special time for reading - it’s a natural part of their day. The born reader wants books they can sink their teeth into. Wharton states, “The born reader may or may not wish to hear what the critics have to say of a book; but if he cares for any criticism, he wants the only kind worthy of the name - an analysis of subject and manner.” They read books with depth and meat. The born reader is made better by reading. They also improve writers because “what is reading, in the last analysis, but an interchange of thought between writer and reader?” The born reader reads books with a purpose and not for show. They’re not trying to be well-read - they do it naturally.

Wharton quips, “There is, indeed, something peculiarly aggressive in the virtuousness of the sense-of-duty reader.” a.k.a. the mechanical reader. The mechanical reader refuses to DNF books, reads solely what is popular, feeds mediocre writing through their enjoyment of mediocre books, and seems to confuse plot summary with criticism. "The greatest books ever written are worth to each reader only what he can get out of them." Unfortunately, the mechanical reader never doubts his intellectual competency, leading them to a misguided sense of moral superiority and the worst kinds of pseudo-intellectualism. For the mechanical reader, “It is his nature to mistrust and dislike every book he does not understand.” Perhaps this is why they’re “plot extractors” and regurgitators of the opinions of others.

I loved this essay because these are not points we're still debating today.³ Do we not judge booktok girlies for only reading smut? How many articles, blog posts, and videos about becoming "well-read" or debating the merits of reading "real literature?"⁴ The reading community hasn't changed in the last 120ish years.

Please share your thoughts and favorite quotes from The Vice of Reading in the comments. My favorite chortle-worthy quote is: "As grace gives faith, so zeal for self-improvement is supposed to confer brains." OUCH!

As always, thank you for reading! I will post a new edition of SITREP and your weekly post for The House of Mirth over the weekend. My posting schedule will be delayed over the next few weeks, so please bear with me. I am experiencing many changes and shifts in my personal life at the moment, and I’m trying to find a new groove with posting, filming, and reading. Change always scares me, but I'm hoping that once everything has settled, I will look back on all this anxiety and giggle.

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1. Wharton, E. (1903). The Vice of Reading. The North American Review, 177(563), 513–521. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25119460 (open access)

2. I seem to avoid most of these virtues - particularly that early-rising one, yuck!

3. Some excellent substack posts about reading and the reading community:

is the way we talk about reading online problematic? by

leah beth

in defense of pretension.

rent free.

booktok may have lost the plot, but lit girls haven’t

Notes On 💌

in search of cool

twenty-first century demoniac

4. One of my favorite “read better books” arguments: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNeELBUW8/ and the follow-up https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNeELrC15/