Who Needs Books? Hell, Who Needs Cliffs Notes?

Psychoanalyst Stephen Soldz has an interesting post about a startling admission by a French psychoanalytically-oriented literary critic who says that he often discusses books he has never read without others catching on to his deception.

Pierre Bayard, a 52-year-old professor at Paris University, claims not only that he "authoritatively" discusses books he hasn't read or finished reading, he even admitted that he sometimes does so without so much as reading a book review.

My first inclination is to question the veracity of the story, but I hesitate to do so because I know a clinician on the faculty of a major American university who does exactly the same thing.

It's appalling.  And, he's not even French.

Comments

[Edwin Galegos]

Dr. X,
Please say it isn't so. If I keep reading your blog, I might just lose my faith in everything.

It would just help immensely if you would assure me that this "not even French" clinician on the faculty of a major American university at least reads the book reviews.

[Matthew Young]

My little brother, when he was about 16, cottoned onto the fact early in a class that the teacher hadn't actually read the book she had assigned them to read and was now discussing as part of the lesson.

He then started, with a completely straight face, to make up things that never happened in the book and discuss them as if they were real. He even made up two characters which never existed and proceeded to kill one of them off as well.

The rest of the class caught on to this and played along and the teacher fell for it hook, line and sinker. And, of course, once she realised, what could she do?

I am still impressed with him for that, some twelve years later.

[Dr X]

Matthew,

I hadn't even considered the possibilities for the mischief to be made with a person who tries this. His teacher certainly had it coming.