On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
I finished
today. I’ve been telling people I’m reading a book about books, which it is, but more. Karen Swallow Prior is a Christian writer, a literature professor at Liberty University. You might think the purpose of this book is to tell you why you should read this particular list of great books. But, the subtitle is “Finding the Good Life Through Great Books,” a clue that this is much more than just a book about books. I have not read most of the books, and likely will not read more of them, but I greatly enjoyed what the author had to say. Prior organizes the books around virtues, using a book to demonstrate the virtues and discussing them in a wonderful, thoughtful, thought-provoking way. The subtitle might just as aptly have been “Finding the Good Life Through Virtues.”
Table of Contents
Part One - the Cardinal Virtues
1.
Prudence:
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
by Henry Fielding
2.
Temperance:
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3.
Justice:
A Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
4.
Courage:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
Part Two – The Theological Virtues
5.
Faith:
Silence
by Shusaku Endo
6.
Hope:
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
7.
Love:
The Death of Ivan Ilych
by Leo Tolstoy
Part Three – The Heavenly Virtues
8.
Chastity:
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton
9.
Diligence:
Pilgrim’s Progress
by John Bunyan
10.
Patience:
Persuasion
by Jane Austen
11.
Kindness:
Tenth of December
by George Saunders
12.
Humility: “Revelation” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor
I like the old-fashioned words such as prudence, temperance, and diligence. I had never seen this kind of grouping of cardinal, theological, and heavenly virtues. “The Aristotelian philosophy of virtue is tied to a sense of human purpose or
telos
– in other words, humanity’s ultimate end or purpose.” “Human excellence occurs when we glorify God, which is our true purpose.” (both page 23). The idea of virtues fits right into our whole “search for meaning” that I hear about quite often.
Prudence
“Virtue requires judgment, and judgment requires prudence. Prudence is wisdom in practice” (p. 34). “Prudence is wisdom at work on the ground, doing good and avoiding evil in real-life situations” (p. 39). Discussing prudence, and Fielding’s “high moral purpose” for his novel
Tom Jones
evoked many points for discussion. One is God’s involvement in the world, his providence.
…Most striking is his narrative technique. A highly involved narrator opens each major section of the novel and interjects throughout to offer explicit commentary (as well as humorous asides). One scholar explains that this intrusive narrator is much more than a clever narrative device in that the narrator embodies Fielding’s theology concerning the character of a God who intervenes and is active in the affairs of humankind—in other words, God’s providence (p. 37)
Hmm. Active how? Commentator/observer only or causing things?
Another topic is the concept of vices. Prior lists Tom Jones’ vices as rashness and negligence. “Prudence is love that chooses with sagacity between that which hinders it and that which helps it“ (p. 45). What are my vices, I ask myself. Rashness, defensiveness/wanting to be right, pride. “…Applying wisdom requires the ability to discern truth and then to act rightly based on truth” (p. 45). Discerning is one thing; it’s that acting part that’s tricky.
Temperance
“Temperance is not simply resisting temptation. It is more than merely restraint…One attains the virtue of temperance when one’s appetites have been shaped such that one’s very desires are in proper order and proportion” (p. 53). Prior uses the example of quitting a bunch of bad-for-you foods in order to lose weight, and after some time finds she actually
wants
grapes for a snack rather than the usual unhealthy foods she usually craves. Her desire changed – temperance.
“Temperance is the virtue that helps us rise above our animal nature, making the image of God in us shine more brilliantly” (p. 53). This reminds me of what I’ve learned about Sabbath practice – rising above animals’ unbreakable cycle of life to stop, break the cycle, and rest.
You have to talk about Prohibition if you use the word “temperance,” and Prior does.
Prohibition grew out of the more moderate movement called Temperance. The American Temperance Society was founded…to temper (or moderate) excessive consumption of alcohol, but eventually to total abstinence (teetotalism). The push toward complete prohibition developed as a reaction against another excess: the growing drunkenness (often resulting in domestic violence and familial neglect) that accompanied the Industrial Revolution (p. 55).
Prior explains Gatsby as “a poster boy for the American Dream” (p. 56) who lusts for Daisy and a “part of a world Gatsby wants to enter but can never be from.” She writes of rising consumerism, “Consumerism does indeed consume us.”
A recent four-year study, for example, found that the lives of the middle class are “overwhelmed” by stockpiled supplies, clutter and toys. Three out of four garages are too full to hold cars, and while the United States has 3.1% of the world’s children, it has 40% of the the world’s toys (p.58).
Temperance is difficult in a world of consumerism. “I want what I want” doesn’t really align with temperance, does it?
More – Justice, Courage, Faith, Hope, Love, Chastity, Patience, Kindness, Humility
I could write paragraphs and paragraphs about each virtue/chapter, but I guess I won’t. I want to mention some of the writing within the Kindness chapter. It revolves around the book
Tenth of December
by George Saunders, which was one of my book club’s choices, if I remember right, but I did not read it.
The character Don goes into the woods (on the 10
th
of December) to end his life after being becoming sick and weak with a fatal disease to “ease the burdens of those he loves” (p.213). A boy, Robin, finds the coat Don took off and searches for the owner. “When Don spies the boy carrying his coat in search of him, even his weakened mind is troubled at the thought of a child stumbling across the scene of death he is about to create…’That could scar a kid,’ he thinks (pp. 213-14). Then the boy falls through the ice on a pond and Don manages to save his life. They go to Robin’s home and the boy’s mother cares for Don, who realizes a “renewed joy in life.” Then he is reunited with his wife.
Before they reunite, though, “Don pauses one more time to consider whether he really wants to continue living, knowing the days he has left are numbered and will be filled with great pain (p. 217). Quote from
The Tenth of December
:
Did he still want it? Did he still want to live?
Yes, yes, oh, God, yes, please.
Because, O.K., the thing was—he saw it now, was starting to see it—if some guy at the end, fell apart, and said or did bad things, or had to be helped, helped to quite a considerable extent? So what? What of it? Why should he not do or say weird things or look strange or disgusting? Why should the s----- not run down his legs? Why should those he loved not lift and bend and feed and wipe him, when he would gladly do the same for them? He’d been afraid to be lessened by the lifting and bending and feeding and wiping, and was still afraid of that, and yet, at the same time, now saw that there could still be many—many drops of goodness, is how it came to him—many drops of happy—of good fellowship—ahead, and those drops of fellowship were not—had never been—his to [withhold].
Prior says whenever she reads this passage, “it pierces [her] every time” (p. 218). She confesses to being “terribly, terribly afraid of dying.” Afraid of all the things Saunders writes of Don fearing. As Prior says, these fears are natural and normal, but she feels they are heightened for her because her husband’s father killed himself when faced with the fate of dying from a fatal disease. It scarred her husband and all his family.
For those so sick or scared or depressed that they think their loved ones would be better off without them, I so wish for them to know what Don Eber came to know; caring for those bodies we inhabit for a while—whether that care is of our own or someone else’s body—isn’t a distraction from what life is all about. It is what life is all about.
In lieu of death, be kind to one another.
That pierces me, too. I think of many things. Jean Vanier and L’Arche, living with and befriending lonely, mentally challenged people. My brother finding so much humor in his life during the 6 months it took him to die of ALS. My mom feeling so ashamed when she came home from a walk around the block with exactly what Saunders listed, s------ running down her legs. My sister and sister-in-law faithfully present for Mom as she declined both physically and mentally with Parkinson’s. My dad, from his own deathbed saying, “Move her closer, closer,” when we wheeled Mom in to his room so he could hold her hand and say, “Hi, sweetheart.” Dad holding my own hand, kissing it, and saying, “I love you so much.” My aunt – my mom’s sister – sitting beside Mom shortly before she died, looking at old photos and knowing exactly what my mom meant as she managed to speak one or two words the memories those pictures evoked. My sister reading Psalm 23 to Mom as she breathed her last breaths, with Mom silently echoing the words. Yes, that is what life is all about.
* On Reading Well, Finding the Good Life Through Great Books
by Karen Swallow Prior. Brazos Press, Grand Rapids, MI. copyright 2018.