The Rumpus chats with Villalon about the state and future of book reviewing, reading and literature’s place in our contemporary culture.
From the interview...
Rumpus: And then, paradoxically, insisting reading is good for their kids.
Villalon: Right, well it’s not gonna make you a better person. There’s no bearing between reading and the child’s morality. It does not make you a better person. The same way that writing doesn’t help heal your wounds. It’s not therapy. Reading shouldn’t be therapy either. Now, what it might do is put into context your own situation in life. It might give you some sort of consolation as to what your dilemma is, and it might give you some sort of answer as to how you should act. But, if you’re a sociopath, you’re still a sociopath.
It’s kind of like marriage and reading. The personality you go in with is the personality you’re gonna remain with. Nothing’s gonna change. It’s who you are. He can mature and not be as reckless and stuff, but that has nothing to do with reading. It just has to do with life experiences, I think.
Before, I remember before I did this job going to bookstores. I rarely go into bookstores now. Every now and again, just to see how things are, but I used to spend hours in there, and just think and look up. What a bounty. You can pick from any of this. And you live in this country and you’re living in reasonable safety, and have reasonable comfort, and you can enjoy yourself in this way and feel you’re, again, your self, your inner life developing by reading this. I think if anything, that’s the best thing, is that you don’t need approval.
If you read and you read widely and you challenge yourself, reading different books and things you might not necessarily be comfortable with, but just to see what’s going on, you’ll find that sort of comfort in having a rich inner life. Being able to put things in perspective, and being able to see, it’s a comedy. Don’t kill yourself.
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