What should I take with me to India? I want to live a different life, in a different society, with different ideas and goals. It's warm there, life will be easy. Apart from the basics like a few items of clothing, I'll need my technical devices such as my laptop, cell phone and camera. And what else? A good flashlight, because the country lanes there are not lit. And books... There will also be a number of libraries there. I haven't read for 'pleasure' for a very long time. I read a lot of 19th century novels as an undergraduate: Brontë, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Balzac, Goncharov... In high school it was the ancient dramas of Sophocles or classics like Shakespeare, but also Hesse. I enjoyed reading plays, they were intense, fast-paced and stimulating.
Since I have been using the Internet, and I have been doing so since the beginning of the Netscape browser, my reading has changed. I read less linearly, jump around more, read a lot at the same time. As a result, I sometimes feel dizzy and need books as an anchor. The books that accompany me are always books that are highly condensed in theory. I also read them very slowly, usually only a few pages, then I have a lot to think about again. I don't understand how people devour complex books. Books that interest me represent a whole cosmos of thought. Such a cosmos is difficult to grasp. It's a bit like traveling. Some people want to see everything, to have been everywhere, they collect stories and photos, and yet they haven't really been there. Other countries, cultures and languages take time. You have to approach them slowly, wait for an invitation, be polite and respectful.
Once again, consumerism is probably the guiding principle here. It is linked to capitalist exploitation, which apparently serves self-expression and earns social points. I've always been suspicious of that. Sure, I also like to be entertained and consume media because it's fun, distracting or simply generates great feelings. But this distraction is not sustainable for me. I don't remember movies or books or places etc... I'm interested in how something has changed my thinking. How I have become something else. Encounters with books and places trigger a change, I am a different person after a real encounter, or a different animal, or a different work, depending on who wants to perceive themselves and how...
24 books, an interweaving, an experiment. An artificial juxtaposition. What would a dialog between Deleuze and Aurobindo have looked like? Would they have had anything to say to each other?
