This is a bit weird to explain in the title so I’ll further elaborate a bit. I’m reading Ivanhoe at the moment and it has an introductory essay by the author, which I skipped because when I started reading it for the first time it felt boring and unrelated to my expectations of the book. Near the middle of the novel I decied to read the introduction after all because I realized that reading it after I’ve finished the novel may ruin the experience.
So what happened was that when I was reading the introduction I felt like the author shared his honest thoughts in such a way as to not downplay or hide his intelligence in order to appeal to “the masses”, so to speak, but on the contrary, he spoke with lots of humility and as if his readers were equal to him intellectually. I felt like I’m having a satisfying, honest and intelligent conversation with the author and I guess a reason for that was precisely the fact I already had read half of the novel and already had idea of some of the topics he was talking about. It felt like I was discussing the book with him and we’re having a conversation about what and why he had written what he had written, while at the same time I was commenting on his thoughts with myself.
Overall, incredibly satisfying and weird experience. Was it the nature of the essay/introduction? Or something else which I can’t identify? Or… nothing, simply a coincidence? Have you had such an experience where you felt like you and the author are having an intellectual conversation where you understand the author’s thoughts and ideas and you’re able to reflect on them and relate to them through your own experience and understanding? Has it happened when reading fiction or non-fiction; philosophy or science; essays on certain topics; articles on the Internet?
by monsimons