What we gain from keeping books – and why it doesn’t need to be ‘joy’ by Anakana Schofield

What we gain from keeping books – and why it doesn’t need to be ‘joy’

Anakana Schofield

 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/07/what-we-gain-from-keeping-books-and-why-it-doesnt-need-to-be-joy-marie-kondo

Tidying guru Marie Kondo advises us to ditch reading we don’t find joyful. But one’s personal library should do much more than anthologise warm feelings

Ditch: To abandon or discard

Mon 7 Jan 2019 16.48 GMT

The latest TV series by charming, tidy-up guru Marie Kondo has landed on Netflix and while we are all in love with the vibrant folk featured in her show, last week I accidentally entered the damning territory of disagreeing with Kondo’s philosophy – in a tweet that went viral. For while I’d heed Kondo’s “Konmari method” for habits such as folding T-shirts, she is woefully misguided when she says we should get rid of books that don’t give us “joy”.

Folk: You can refer to people as folk or folks.

Heed: If you heed someone's advice or warning, you pay attention to it and do what they suggest.

For while…she is…

Woefully: If someone or something is woeful, they are very sad

Anakana Schofield @AnakanaSchofiel Do NOT listen to Marie Kondo or Konmari in relation to books. Fill your apartment & world with them. I don’t give a shite if you throw out your knickers and Tupperware but the woman is very misguided about BOOKS. Every human needs a v extensive library not clean, boring shelves ☺21.3K  11:41 PM - Jan 3, 2019 4,369 people are talking about this

I don’t give a shite: If someone says that they do not give a shit about something, they mean that they do not care about it at all.

v extensive: V or v is an abbreviation for words beginning with v, such as 'verse', 'versus', 'very', and 'volt'. In this case, very.

Present tally among the 25,000-plus tweets replying to mine: 65% agree with me, 20% disagree, 3% think we are fighting over a football team and 5% insist Kondo’s position is way more nuanced than I give credit for. The rest insist I am a joyless frump. But be assured that this joyless frump will not be following Kondo’s advice, to essentially hold my books against my teats and left ventricle to see if they spark joy. If my own novels are anything to go by, I should be slightly concerned if the most recent, Martin John, sparked joy in anyone other than a convicted sex offender or a forensic psychiatrist.

Tally: The current score

Nuanced: A subtle distinction or variation

Joyless frump: Woman sad and ugly

Teat: Nipple

Spark: If one thing sparks another, the first thing causes the second thing to start happening.

To go by: To have any relation, to have something implication

Slightly: Slightly means to some degree but not to a very large degree.

In one video, Kondo helps a woman declutter her books by “waking them up”. Surely the way to wake up any book is to open it up and read it aloud, not tap it with fairy finger motions – but this is the woo-woo, nonsense territory we are in. Once the books are split into keep and get-gone piles, Marie and the woman thank the books for serving their purpose.

Declutter (diːˈklʌtə ): To remove things you do not need from a place, in order to make it more pleasant and more useful

Aloud: When you say something, read, or laugh aloud, you speak or laugh so that other people can hear you.

Tap: To hit something gently, and often repeatedly, especially making short, sharp noises

Get-go: Disappear

The metric of objects only “sparking joy” is deeply problematic when applied to books. The definition of joy (for the many people yelling at me on Twitter, who appear to have Konmari’d their dictionaries) is: “A feeling of great pleasure and happiness, a thing that causes joy, success or satisfaction.” This is a ludicrous suggestion for books. Literature does not exist only to provoke feelings of happiness or to placate us with its pleasure; art should also challenge and perturb us.

We live in a frantic, goal-obsessed, myopic time. Everything undertaken has to have a purpose, outcome or a destination, or it’s invalid. But art doesn’t care a noodle about your Apple watch, your fitness goals, active lifestyle, right swipes, career and surrender on black pudding. Art will be around far longer than Kondo’s books remain in print. Art exists on its own terms and untidy timeline.

Frantic: If you are frantic, you are behaving in a wild and uncontrolled way because you are frightened or worried.

Swipes: Movements of your finger over the screen of a mobile phone or tablet in order to move onto the next page, choose something, etc.

Black pudding: Blood sausage

As for culling one’s unread books – while that may be essential for reducing fire and tripping hazards, it is certainly not a satisfying engagement with the possibilities of literature. (Unless it’s self-help or golf, in which case, toss it.) Success is, eventually, actually reading your unread books, or at least holding on to them long enough that they have the chance to satisfy, dissatisfy or dement you. Unread books are imagined reading futures, not an indication of failure.

Culling: The reduction of the size of an animal population

Tripping:To lose your balance after knocking your foot against something when you are walking or running

Hazards: Dangers

Engagement: An arrangement to meet someone or do something at a particular time

Toss it: To throw something carelessly

Dement: To drive mad

In one episode of her Netflix series, Kondo helps two male writers declutter their very tidy home. When it comes to the books, the advice is grim. “Books are a reflection of our thoughts and values,” Kondo says to the viewer. “Will these books be beneficial to your life moving forward?”

Grim: If a person or their behaviour is grim, they are very serious, usually because they are worried about something.

Books are not a reflection of our thoughts and values, because more often than not they reflect someone else’s, whether it is Lolita, Mrs Dalloway or Snoopy. Most of us don’t share the values of Adolf Hitler, but we may own many books about the second world war. The question of whether my books will be beneficial to my life moving forward requires a biblio-telepathy I do not possess. Our book collections record the narrative of expansion, diversion, regression, terror and yet-to-be-discovered possibilities of our reading life. This is why, on entering your living space, people immediately migrate to examine your bookshelves, rather than rummage in your cutlery or sock drawers.

Cutlery: Knives, forks, and spoons used for eating food

I read in a variety of ways – ebooks, audiobooks – and never mind donating or sharing books. But I can’t imagine what a blank collection of physical books I’d be left with if they had to spark joy. (Goodbye Jelinek, Bernhard and Kafka, hello books with photos of hippo feet.) When I look at my shelves, I marvel at how random books have ended up beside each other. Some are on my shelf on the strength of just one line or a paragraph. Some are gifts, others I found discarded in the street. But every purchase of a book is a gesture of faith in the writer who wrote it. Writers are nothing without readers. Rather than following Kondo’s rules, I’d like to suggest another: it should be obligatory that all living spaces come with built-in bookshelves. (And a hammock.)

What a blank collection: ???

Hammock: A hammock is a piece of strong cloth or netting which is hung between two supports and used as a bed. (hamaca)