A POLITE, ENTHUSIASTIC, AND CONFIDENT VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE – by Steve Nadis
My coauthor sent a copy of our manuscript to a CalTech student to see whether it would make sense to the nonprofessional. He received the following polite reply: “I am looking forward to reading your book, though I must confess I will not understand it.”
Posted by in 20:56:07
Sounds like a confession extracted under torture: either that or he’s just being a wise guy.
I resent that, A. We’d never you torture to get someone to read our book. But we are not above a little coercion… –S
I could get into deconstructive theories of thought, and how it matters not how a text is understood on the page, but how it stimulates the mind to work through its own constructions; but Snake, the point is, the guy wants to read your book, however much of it he thinks he’ll understand it.
It makes me think of a story from poet Kenneth Koch, when a grade school student said he didn’t understand his poem: “It doesn’t matter if you understand a poem, son; what matters is than you like it. I don’t understand YOU and I like YOU!”
Great anecdote, GM. I am going to use that! –S