benjamin reading

benjamin reading
Originally uploaded by nostalgist

So there is this moment in Augustine's Confessions when he watches Ambrose reading and is amazed because Ambrose is reading silently. This is something utterly new and critics have called it a crucial moment in the history of privacy and subjectivity etc. etc. Well Benjamin is there! He sat down and read this whole book to himself two days ago, and he didn't even move his lips and only needed help on names like "George Lancaster" (it's a British children's book called Pat and the Puzzle Parcels"). And now Lev has caught on to this and says "Watch me count inside my head" and stands there with this funny concentrating expression on his face as if he was performing some magic trick - which, after all, it is.