i just read virginia woolf’s essay on charlotte brontë. at one point, she writes: ‘to write down one’s impressions of hamlet as one reads it year after year, would be virtually to record one’s own autobiography.’
i can’t stop thinking about it? i love being reminded that literature is as much about the interaction between the reader and the text as it is between the writer and the text. not just the fact that, as we go through life and grow, we find literature increasingly commenting on the experiences we’ve had. but also the fact that we come to books with our own life experiences and thoughts, and we work retroactively with a writer to almost create a slightly new book from what they wrote - their book through our eyes. as readers, we are as essential to the literature-making process as the writer.
my copy of hamlet is probably very different to yours. i might’ve related more to hamlet’s musings on death and morality. you might be more interested in shakespeare’s questioning of power or revenge. same story, different notes, different eyes, different lives.
