From the Viewpoint of a Common Reader

A common reader, I think, reads not for amusement or knowledge alone though that may be what draws her to open a book, to leaf through a periodical, to scroll a page. . ...There are things I missed that I now feel I was fully present for: the why and when of the books I have been reading; Monk's House dampness and camp-ness; Charleston's hearty eccentricism; the excitement of new, unpublished letters. ...As I read, I grow fond of the scholars whose names appear and reappear, feel sadness at obituaries for people I have never met. ...In Issue #18: J. J. Wilson mentions an article, "Are We a Cult?," by Helen Dudar, who views the Miscellany as a "fanzine"; William Gekle worries about being in a cult, but I don't. Or maybe I would enjoy joining a cult? (Note to self: need to look up the Saturday Review article by Helen Dudar.) ...I was writing a poem about Duncan Grant and his "campishness" in 2011 when I read the obituary (Spring-Summer 1978)-surely the sudden grief I felt was "camp" itself; he had then been dead at least 33 years.. ...Then I noticed "a certain Theory of Domesticity" (Jane Lilienfield's article "The Sunlight on The Garden: Vanessa Bell at One Hundred" in Volume #15). For me, reading the text of a book by Woolf is a very vague picture and takes on a greater depth when one pictures the writer sitting over a typewriter putting a sentence together, scratching it out, rewriting. ...Issue #25: it's a prickly resistance t a Angelica Garnet's victimhood in her memoir, Deceived by Kindness, wanting to chant at her "Get over it," like I might to a client. ...As is evident, the Miscellany is sort of like visiting my Granny's attic and finding old love letters written by my Granddad-to become obsessed with what it all means and how it all turned out, and just continuing to turn pages to find out the truth.