A short endearing account of a friendship between academics in which several texts on naturalism, travel and observation of the wild are mentioned. There are also some brief reflections on the meaning of the gifts, which are more or less interesting.

This story, like so many stories, begins with a gift. That gift, like so many gifts, was a book…

Most people love receiving presents, but for me the best present to receive is a book. A well-chosen book opens up a world of possibilities, it is something that can be treasured for ages and can have a resonance between giver and receiver. In this essay, Macfarlane extolls the deep significance of giving and receiving books as he recalls receiving The Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor from Don, a close friend and past colleague. This simple gift of this book, was what drove him to walk the hills and mountains and in turn has given us, the reader, his own wonderful books.

This short, intense, expresso like book is a little gem that will continue to provide insight and delight every time I give or receive a book. This is only available from Independent Bookshops, and monies go towards Migrant Offshore Aid Station. ( )

29/2020. The Gifts of Reading, aka I Hate the Poors and Enact Class War Through Dogwhistles, by Robert "Tory Boy" Macfarlane. I mistakenly read this library book because (a) it fits in my bag and (b) I foolishly thought there was a small chance the author might manage to discuss books that inspire him without boring on about why he hates any literature that might uplift disadvantaged people, but at least it's a short essay.

Reading notes

Macfarlane apparently believes that the Chinese oligarchs running elite tertiary education in Beijing in the 21st century are teaching "Maoism", specifically through the lens of English literature, lol!

He implies Wordsworth's earlier "revolutionary" works, that were "revolutionary" in both style and content, are less likely to "thrill, perplex, and amaze" (college age students) than his "late-life conservative" poems, lol.

Macfarlane mocks the idea (which appears to be his own projection) that within the same Chinese elite tertiary education "Thomas Hood's 'The Song of the Shirt' was the most important Victorian poem". Because literature that fosters overwhelmingly positive social change for working class English women couldn't possibly be as "important" as "late-life conservative" Wordsworth? Lol.

He fetishises a "blue-collar background" white male American poetry teacher as a token of authenticity, then admits he treated this guy badly in real life (because his oxbridge educational privilege made him do it, apparently). Can't lol here because this genuinely sounds like at best entitled obliviousness to a fellow human being in the flesh (unlike the typical war on poor people as a class who are conceptualised as non-human).

Blah blah fetishising Patrick Leigh Fermor's memoir Time of Gifts in which a privileged young man grifts his way across Europe blah blah. I wonder why the author identifies with this? Lol.

At this point there's a German word and definition thereof that gave me a feeling more like fremdschämen than "Sehnsucht".

Then we're treated to a description of the noise and air pollution in 2007 Beijing where the author "tried to look after my two young children adequately" but don't worry because in the next paragraph he's off on a jolly up a sacred mountain far away in the Daxue range (presumably without his children - readers can only wonder which completely invisible person was working at the childcare....).

"Great art 'offers us images by which to imagine our lives', notes Lewis Hyde in his classic 1983 book, The Gift, '[and] once the imagination has been awakened it is procreative: through it we can give more than we were given, say more than we had to say'. This is a beautiful double-proposition: that art enlarges our repertoire for being, and that it further enables a giving onwards of that enriched utterance, that broadened perception." So... like the empathy towards working class women that many readers of Thomas Hood's poem The Song of the Shirt first felt and then acted upon?

Given a choice of many thousands of books to use as an example of uninspiring literature Macfarlane decides on a populist autobiography by a working class Labour (left of centre) politician, because of course he does, lol. I mean, who could possibly be inspired by the story of a working class person uplifted through the trade union movement to become Deputy Prime Minister of his country?

Don't worry though because all the proceeds from this hate-fuelled class war on the poors goes to Migrant Offshore Aid Station, lol. I have no problem with charity beginning abroad but I do think charitability, a charitable attitude to one's fellow beings, should begin nearer home. Shame this author clearly doesn't feel a similar way towards less fortunate people who live closer at hand. ( )

A slight but beautiful little essay about books given as gifts between friends. Lovely. ( )

This was a reasonable essay about the benefits to people of giving in general, but in particular the benefits of giving books. It is bracketed by a story of the author's friendship with a colleague and this adds a bit of personal interest to it.

While it is a touching essay with worthwhile comments about books and giving without thought of receiving anything in return, I do not see it as something that warrants publication. It read more like a magazine article. ( )