In Praise of Readers

A Substack Anniversary

JUST A YEAR AGO…

It is just one year since I first started writing on Substack.

Back last August, I found myself in a quandary, as I’d just received a note from MailChimp saying that, unless I paid them for an upgrade, I had far too many people in my mailing list, and the company were refusing to send out anymore emails. I immediately sought the advice of friends who suggested many kinds of possibilities. With a list of twelve different companies to explore, I worked my way down them and so discovered Substack - without at all understanding what it was. I liked its appearance immediately and duly sent out a newsletter update to my entire mailing list.

And then the penny dropped! I had fallen down a rabbit-hole like Alice, and discovered a whole new world. Which is how I came to set up A Hallowquest Sanctuary as a virtual place for my readers and students worldwide. Well, I know a bit better now, although I am still not conversant with or using all of its applications! This is a moment of reflection and appreciation of you all!

THE LOVE BETWEEN READERS AND WRITERS

Without readers, writers would be like one hand clapping.

Writing and reading are mutually agreeable enterprises, for if a writer enjoys writing, readers will enjoy reading what they’ve written. However, if the writer begrudges writing or makes a meal of it, or tries to write by some formulaic or ‘approved school of writing’ method, readers will grow bored and disaffected, and go elsewhere.

A book is a promise that goes out into the world, sharing its vision. It is often said (usually by newspapers) that fewer people read now, but I know that this is not my experience. Perhaps we are reading in different ways, and by different modes - reading on phones, through earphones as we listen while driving or exercising. I know that I am not reading less. I still have books in various parts of the house that are ongoing reading for different times of day or activities. My own handbag must be big enough for a book and notebook, always. However we do it, we must read.

However, writing books can be a solitary occupation, and some writers can become very removed from their readers. I know some writers who have little or no sense of how their readers receive their work - I’ve heard them say things like, ‘well, of course, not many people read me, ‘ or ‘I sometimes feel as if I’m working in a void.’

Dear readers, these are often writers whose work is greatly influential but, because they are not social media types, or have to live in their solitary enclave to work at all, they just have no notion of their impact. They haven’t heard from you, they have no idea that you love them. Write to them and tell them now, while they are still alive! This is the very stuff that can keep a solitary writer or artist alive and working - if only we knew it!

If you haven’t ever seen the Dr Who episode of Vincent and the Doctor where Vincent Van Gogh comes forward in time to his own retrospective at the Musée d’Orsay - then you need to, because Van Gogh, similarly, had no sense of his impact at the time of his death. He was completely unaware of any appreciate audience. for his art, because no-one rated him at the time. In this wonderful Dr. Who episode we see that moment when Vincent learns that he has not been working in a vaccuum. Enjoy!

Dear solitary writers, who have no idea what you have done for your readers, I would like to see this same wonder light up your faces - yes, you!

For it is love that makes reading so nourishing. Love from the act of creation becomes the very fuel of our lives, the connective cartilage that helps us stand up every morning - despite all trouble and hardship - to soldier on and to fulfil our lives. Consolation is such a strong part of our reading, as is our ravenous desire for the story of which we cannot get enough!

But not everyone understands this loving support. Many years ago, when I had to give up acting due to my health, I worked in a library. Library budgets have always been tight, but never so tight as when the chief librarian of a particular southern British county decided to cancel all fiction from the entire public library system in that county for the next season. Everyone at our own library was horrified because - if you have ever noticed what proportion of books are borrowed by people in a public library - you will know that it is the fiction that is the most frequent flyer! That chief librarian was clearly taken to one side and told not to be an utter fool, because that threatened stoppage never happened - the whole county would have gone ballistic otherwise.

Reading is our food and drink. The starving people who made their own hidden library in Syria, creating a cache of books carefully scavenged from the destruction of homes in Darayya, which had been besieged and shelled by pro-Assad forces, relied upon books for their very lives. Hidden deep underground, it was a place of study and safety. When, finally, everyone was given safe-conduct out of Darayya, and the inhabitants were resettled at a refugee camp, their first question on arrival was ‘where are the books?’ For their library had been their meat and drink, their school, their strength, their knowledge, consolation, inspiration, and a joyous escape from harsh realities. (You can hear Amjad, the boy librarian, describe the library here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36893303)

Whatever the reason we read, the giving and receiving of that wondrous love between writers and readers is continuously paying out - an endless bond of trust and delight that is our lifeline. Even though a book, text, or essay may lie unread for centuries, it awaits the moist and receptive love of the reader to animate it once more to stand up and sing its special song again.

DEAR READER

Now that I have spent a whole year in the country of Substack, I look back on over 70 posts. Dear reader, you have been making the Hallowquest Sanctuary wider all this time - I hope it can remain as intimate as you require, and yet ample enough so that any large gathering can take place within it. We are all on our quest together, and your reading of my work has been a delight and a great joy to me. Fortunately, I never feel like Vincent, and enjoy our interactions.

Thank you for your kind support, your reaction, and your good questions. I’ve never felt so appreciated and supported before in all my writing life. Thank you!

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The last part of Blessings of the Celtic Year Course will be along next month. Beyond that, I will be announcing a new longer series for all who are trying to live in a better way, drawing on one of the oldest continuous teachings of the West - to be unveiled.