15. She Was Right About Everything

Welcome to Musing Interruptus. Thank you for clicking, thank you for listening. I was watching House of Cards on Netflix. Patricia Clarkson plays Jane Davis,  deputy undersecretary of commerce for international trade. Apart from the skill and eccentricity, she brings to the role, she gives a voice to one of the most interesting characters of the whole series. In my humble opinion… humblest of opinions…  Before her character is stripped of all its power, she makes a poignant statement about power and women by invoking the Second Sex, by Simone the Beauvoir, She was right about everything. A couple of weeks ago I got into a heated discussion with someone, who shall remain nameless, who posited that it wasn’t keeping with the times having students read and write essays. Students are learning faster, technology can stimulate our brains and that is how we learn. We were talking about higher education, by the way. I believe there was a defense of the use of TikTok as an example of how issues should be simplified, into bite-sized capsules. Honestly, what I felt was a hot sword sear through my brain. My upbringing included being told that not reading was something to be ashamed of. -Mind you, I live in a country where people read 3.9 books per year. Teachers have their work cut out for them. Why should you pick up a book (or kindle or bootleg pdf or photocopies)? According to Batini, Toti, and Bartolucci in Dementia and Neuropsychology (2016) Mental stimulation… the processes of mentalizing (understanding a narrative) and autobiographic memory are stimulated. The authors indicate that reading stimulates changes in connectivity, and it is an efficient training not only for language but for all cognitive domains. So if you ever worry about dementia and are one of the many that have a glass of red wine and a cup of coffee as preventive measures, this might also be one of the reasons you read. Even if you don’t have that much time. Reading is crucial for mental development, to increase vocabulary (we need words to imagine and express thoughts, words are thoughts, imagine that), concentration, writing skills… to imagine realities other than our own, which stimulates empathy, critical thinking, imagination, and a plethora of skills I am not imagining. I need to read more. My work revolves around reading ideas, mostly about international affairs, and I read my student’s reflections on international business and international affairs. I help them organize their ideas. I also translate, so I read about whatever I’m translating, and for fun, I joined a book club. We finished Wuthering Heights last month. I’m not over it yet. Now we are reading Cloud Cuckoo Land. I can feel the transformation happening. My reality is being transformed, once more. The glasses with which I can understand the world have a new tint. The very way I ever imagined organizing a story has changed along with it. Joining the book club not only brought me new friends, travel companions sharing their reactions of love, hate, and conundrums over the worlds we discover with each turn of the page. It has also given me the opportunity to make new fictitious friends. They joined the others. It’s a party. I’m also painting again. The mental stimulation is intense. I needed to read something for fun, for beauty, just because. Continue reading: https://bit.ly/3s1LGuW