Fear of Reading

I have just finished one novel
and am picking up another
reluctantly, because
I do not want to crowd
two sets of characters
together, to have
the Duchesse de Guermantes
sitting down to dinner with
Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov
or Huck and Jim trying
to keep up with Leopold Bloom
as he makes his way
through the streets of Dublin.

At times, art is too much for me.
Once the composer Ives
said to a fellow who was booing him,
"Stop being such a God-damned sissy!
Why can't you stand up before
fine strong music like this
and use your ears like a man!"

I am a sissy, though.
I walked around in a daze
before I read Henry James;
afterwards, it all made sense.
That is why I am afraid of books:
they have saved my life before,
surely they could kill me.

-- David Kirby

Reading Arthur & George feels a little like this -- two narratives I have to pause between in order to keep from schizophrenia.