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David's Reviews > Sobriety and Mirth
Sobriety and Mirth
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"Believers, do not forbid the good things that God has allowed you but do not transgress either, for God does not love transgressors." (Quran V, 87)
That line closes the penultimate paragraph of his essay "On Drink & Drinkers," which الجاحظ gives us as the irreducible essence of that essay. If I could characterize his philosophy, it would be a "magnanimous temperance" informed by the highest scriptural conceptions in the Quran. One takes pleasure in moderation, magnifies their delight with reason when they reflect on folly and evil avoided, and develops their sense of wisdom by simplifying tempting situations with virtue.
In the past several years, I found myself increasingly obsessed with locating such irreducible precepts in all that I read, whether by reading luxuriously slowly, or when I steal a glance at a book at the bookshop, which I have little intention of buying but much of perusing.
It is quite appreciable when an author provides us that very precept directly. You may find that as the epigraph for a book (see the two which Ellison pairs for Invisible Man), its first sentence (the compression performed in Woolf's Orlando), the final sentence (that icy and supreme work of Blanchot's, The Instant of My Death), or in the introduction. Montaigne's Essays are the best example of an introduction which impossibly compresses into one pure method the ambition of his collection.
The Essays are a way for his friends and family to keep him around long after death, and also for him to find new kin. In masterfully conveying his wit and also preserving the way in which he read and learned, they leave gaps for us to imagine the continued activity of his mind as if he were alive now. The presence of Montaigne continues to speak among those who know him well.
Montaigne read widely and deeply in a time when the centrality of the Latin classics was indisputable. The twenty-first century is a veritable avalanche of reading material, from the content published daily to all of the resources, exponentially increased by translation from other languages, that plunge casual readers and scholars into a crisis of imagination. Where do you find, and how do you find the content you need?
"Where" is a question that requires terrific focus, depending on the goal you have in mind (critic, artist, hedonist), but there is one answer for the how. A well-trained (but sometimes hasty) reader will seek out the locations where an author tends to situate their most potent discovery. This helps you rapidly absorb a revelation which would otherwise require far more time from you to obtain, and to map out the approachability of an unknown terrain before you attempt to mine it.
If the structural integrity of the author's work is reliable, and the reader is willing to test their strength, then those few essential sentences are enough. Coupled with the knowledge of the author's intention and the context for their work, you have successfully reproduced the cumulative impact of a work: the essential take-away, from which the finer details would naturally drop away over time.
If I skim a novel or essay, it’s to find that singular statement around which the structure and purpose of that work revolves. What would normally require a dozen consecutive hours for a full read, I attempt to flee from in one frantic hour. My attention throttles through each page in machine-gun fashion. I gun mainly for keywords.
But it is a great shame that I have not enough time to thoroughly savor this book before my Penn library account expires. Of particular note is “Squaring the Circle,� which is a divinely comedic analogue to God’s monologue to Job.
My mood has much been lifted by the humor of الجاحظ. I am fortunate to have encountered the marvelous final paragraph of "On Drink & Drinkers," which gives this collection of essays its title. It is also great advice on how to write any work you desire, and to be satisfied with whatever you have produced:
"Let that be sufficient for now. If this essay went on any longer, you would find it too much to take in. Brevity can be more effective than thoroughness if it runs the risk of being boring. I have leavened seriousness with humor and spiced reasoning with jest to lighten the reader's labour and spur the reader's interest. I have alternated sobriety and mirth in order to amuse and mixed wit with argument to divert and entertain."
That line closes the penultimate paragraph of his essay "On Drink & Drinkers," which الجاحظ gives us as the irreducible essence of that essay. If I could characterize his philosophy, it would be a "magnanimous temperance" informed by the highest scriptural conceptions in the Quran. One takes pleasure in moderation, magnifies their delight with reason when they reflect on folly and evil avoided, and develops their sense of wisdom by simplifying tempting situations with virtue.
In the past several years, I found myself increasingly obsessed with locating such irreducible precepts in all that I read, whether by reading luxuriously slowly, or when I steal a glance at a book at the bookshop, which I have little intention of buying but much of perusing.
It is quite appreciable when an author provides us that very precept directly. You may find that as the epigraph for a book (see the two which Ellison pairs for Invisible Man), its first sentence (the compression performed in Woolf's Orlando), the final sentence (that icy and supreme work of Blanchot's, The Instant of My Death), or in the introduction. Montaigne's Essays are the best example of an introduction which impossibly compresses into one pure method the ambition of his collection.
The Essays are a way for his friends and family to keep him around long after death, and also for him to find new kin. In masterfully conveying his wit and also preserving the way in which he read and learned, they leave gaps for us to imagine the continued activity of his mind as if he were alive now. The presence of Montaigne continues to speak among those who know him well.
Montaigne read widely and deeply in a time when the centrality of the Latin classics was indisputable. The twenty-first century is a veritable avalanche of reading material, from the content published daily to all of the resources, exponentially increased by translation from other languages, that plunge casual readers and scholars into a crisis of imagination. Where do you find, and how do you find the content you need?
"Where" is a question that requires terrific focus, depending on the goal you have in mind (critic, artist, hedonist), but there is one answer for the how. A well-trained (but sometimes hasty) reader will seek out the locations where an author tends to situate their most potent discovery. This helps you rapidly absorb a revelation which would otherwise require far more time from you to obtain, and to map out the approachability of an unknown terrain before you attempt to mine it.
If the structural integrity of the author's work is reliable, and the reader is willing to test their strength, then those few essential sentences are enough. Coupled with the knowledge of the author's intention and the context for their work, you have successfully reproduced the cumulative impact of a work: the essential take-away, from which the finer details would naturally drop away over time.
If I skim a novel or essay, it’s to find that singular statement around which the structure and purpose of that work revolves. What would normally require a dozen consecutive hours for a full read, I attempt to flee from in one frantic hour. My attention throttles through each page in machine-gun fashion. I gun mainly for keywords.
But it is a great shame that I have not enough time to thoroughly savor this book before my Penn library account expires. Of particular note is “Squaring the Circle,� which is a divinely comedic analogue to God’s monologue to Job.
My mood has much been lifted by the humor of الجاحظ. I am fortunate to have encountered the marvelous final paragraph of "On Drink & Drinkers," which gives this collection of essays its title. It is also great advice on how to write any work you desire, and to be satisfied with whatever you have produced:
"Let that be sufficient for now. If this essay went on any longer, you would find it too much to take in. Brevity can be more effective than thoroughness if it runs the risk of being boring. I have leavened seriousness with humor and spiced reasoning with jest to lighten the reader's labour and spur the reader's interest. I have alternated sobriety and mirth in order to amuse and mixed wit with argument to divert and entertain."
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Reading Progress
August 31, 2019
–
Started Reading
August 31, 2019
– Shelved
January 6, 2020
–
Finished Reading
