For the entire first part of this book I was flooded over and over by words. Words I’d forgotten, words whose definition I took for granted, and words who sneak up and smack you in the head.
How do you define art? Pause for a moment and try to come up with something on your own.
It’s more difficult than you think, right? I am amazed at the process and sheer undertaking involved for defining words from aardvark to sing to zealous.
For most of the first part of the book I didn’t really feel like I was reading a tale of an insane person and kept thinking to myself what a great piece this would be to read in an English class. History combined with a true life struggle makes an excellent story – The Professor and the Madman is neither overly fluffy nor perfunctory. And then I got to the pivotal event that separated W.C. Minor’s early life from the end and realized the subject matter was unfit for High Schoolers. It really caused me to re-examine what I had previously read. ”Oh yeah – he is crazy.”
The beauty of this story is that it allows you to forget about labels, at least temporarily, and appreciate the contribution and undertaking of such a great piece still in use today.
