If reading is an act of simulation, an uncritical approach to reading presents a gamut of problematic consequences. This includes a range of acts: from passive consumption, to sadism, to the reductive view of ‘knowing’ the experience of another by unquestioningly reading a text that represents a point of difference for the reader. Most recently, the work of Fritz Breithaupt has revealed how empathy may have ‘darker sides’. As Barthes points out, pleasure can reinforce sameness and reconstitute old ideas. For him, only in bliss can something new emerge.
Reading often requires a sustained commitment to engaging the sharpness of critiquing society, economics, politics, race, gender, sexuality, and ability, regardless of whether we read a text in school or not. However, when texts of this kind are positioned in the classroom context the attention paid is critical by requirement. It would be irresponsible, and potentially damaging, to teach certain texts without highlighting their social implications through acts of criticism.
From a simply pragmatic angle, I acknowledge that I wouldn’t have much to teach if all I could facilitate was pleasure. I need my students to engage critically with the texts we read together because the game of reading for education invites them to have an experience beyond enjoyment. Studying a text through a critical lens may push us out from what is comforting or pleasurable and challenge us to recognise a spectrum of different affective and critical capabilities. Criticism has a range of possibilities, from revealing the ache of history to presenting a potential path for solidarity and reconciliation. I think most teachers of literature would agree that the ‘game’ of reading in a classroom setting often feels unique to what we pursue when reading alone for personal value. They are different types of games, one is multi-player, the other single. Classrooms enact communal readings through discussion and debate, while reading for pleasure may drive introspective thought, or a break from the self. All the while, individuals draw on their own experiences and beliefs when reading, regardless of whether or not they are reading alone or for a group. The game of reading is a fluid act.
While reading for pleasure and the kind of reading we do for school may seem like different games, they can and should be played together. To play the game of reading for pleasure in the context of education is to resist the pressure of production. While reading is a playful form of simulating being in the world, it is also an active choice which is mediated by our social and historical reality. The key is to engage the text by inviting it in, and to challenge the result. Learning is a process of unfolding, not an already established outcome. A state of bliss requires an openness to uncertainty. And why not learn all this with love?
