Almost a century ago, V.I. Lenin proclaimed illiteracy to be “enemy number one”[1], likely soon after his discovery that printed propaganda was useless in a country where 75% of the people could not write their own name. And while in hindsight the evil powers of capitalism proved to be a much more formidable enemy than reading comprehension, maybe, just maybe, Lenin was onto something.
Today, in an age when wars on concepts are oh-so-fashionable, I accept Lenin’s call. Well, to be honest, I’ve already accepted it, and just haven’t told you about it.
In a word, this is a vendetta: a personal, vicious, yet surprisingly bloodless war against the illiteracy of yours truly. And while we are on the subject, let’s also declare war on memory, that incorrigible charlatan weaving his web of deception ever denser, year after year, until eventually one can’t extract a single useful thread of remembrance. Or as Kundera puts it so poignantly in The Curtain – damn it, I don’t remember, I’ll have to get back to you on that.
In this epic battle against the immemorial, I’m taking up the only weapon capable of creation: the quilted pen, or, more accurately, it’s modern-day, indefatigable (as long as there is power) equivalent – the laptop. Free from the commercial confines of the printing press, this blog will be my personal battlefield.
My objective is as humble as my medium: not to critique, not to elucidate, but simply to capture some of my fleeting thoughts on the things I read. I might even steal a quote or two from the author, and explain it. Or leave it unexplained. It’s my blog, isn’t it?
If you’ve read this far, you are one of my willing victims. Welcome. Alternatively, if you are being forced to read this in the style of the Clockwork Orange, bound helplessly to chair[2], I want to reassure you, I do not in any way approve of what is being done to you, nor did I intend this blog to be used in such a gruesome fashion. Welcome anyways though. Maybe it won’t even be so bad. Maybe this is the last entry.
