The Oppressive Image of Cultural Literacy

In celebration of Esko Mannikko winning the Deutsche Borse Prize (check out his memorable acceptance speech here), we go back to Pierre Bayard, author of How to talk about books you haven't Read.

He writes about the need to "free ourselves of the oppressive image of cultural literacy without gaps... for we can strive toward this image for a lifetime without ever managing to coincide with it. "

"Truth destined for others is less important than truthfulness to ourselves, something attainable only by those who free themselves from the obligation to seem cultivated, which tyrannizes us from within and prevents us from being ourselves."

In other words, we don't have to know everything, our pictures don't have to strive towards some technical pitch of photographic/non-photographic perfection, or some academic pitch of all-knowing cleverness, or some commercial pitch of saleabiltiy, don't photograph for the art market, the mag market or the ad market, don't try to be cool, don't try to hip, don't try to be someone else, don't try to make money, don't try to get published or show your work. Anything that does that will just be disposable. Just be yourself and let the work will come from that.

Books we have never read - Pictures we have never seen

How to talk about books that you haven't Read by French psychoanalyst and literature professor, Pierre Bayard, looks at the different levels of reading that we do, and how it is possible to talk knowledgeably about books we have never read. It's a personal thing for him - he "has no appetite for reading" and moves in circles where one is obliged to read and talk about books. Failure to do so can lead to guilt and feelings of social inadequacy, so what can the professor do, what can we all do beyond wearing the right glasses and having a look of earnest concern on our face at all times?

Bayard divides one's knowledge of books into four categories, books he is unfamiliar with, books he has glanced at, books he has heard discussed, books he has read but forgotten.

Such categorizing should enable us to talk knowledgeably about books we have never read and rid us of "...the oppressive image of a flawless cultural grounding, transmitted and imposed [on us] by the family and by educational institutions, an image which we try all our lives in vain to match up to. For truth in the eyes of others matters less than being true to ourselves, and this truth is only accessible to those who liberate themselves from the constraining need to appear cultured, which both tyrannizes us and prevents us from being ourselves."

Well said. Now what are the equivalent ways of not knowing a photographic work? Works we are unfamiliar with is simple enough, but then what? What are the levels of understanding of visual images and how must one see an image to really understand it?