You do have some different definitions attitudes to mine which may account for part of it. For example:
It took me a while to realize the point of the whole exercise of the Mensa list. It’s not to become well-read. That’s a side effect. The point is to lose your smugness. To get knocked off balance by something older, stranger, smarter than you. To stop assuming you know it all.
I would say those are not two different things. If you have not been affected by things that are "older, stranger, smarter than you" you are not well read!
That is true... I certainly did not have that awareness when I was that age. I had a period locked in my room between 17 and 19 reading anything I could Bram Stoker, Dickens, 1st World war history and so on... but did for the joy and was not fully aware of the impact until much later.
I would say most people would find the same about what they have read when young, and maybe even later. The impact is often pretty subtle and pervasive and you may never know.
Comments
Exactly the point I made in the essay.
You are more positive than me about it.
You do have some different definitions attitudes to mine which may account for part of it. For example:
I would say those are not two different things. If you have not been affected by things that are "older, stranger, smarter than you" you are not well read!
That is true... I certainly did not have that awareness when I was that age. I had a period locked in my room between 17 and 19 reading anything I could Bram Stoker, Dickens, 1st World war history and so on... but did for the joy and was not fully aware of the impact until much later.
I would say most people would find the same about what they have read when young, and maybe even later. The impact is often pretty subtle and pervasive and you may never know.