Watch, listen to, read nothing new in 2023

It worked for Sisyphus

(This piece originally appeared on my Substack, Artless. Subscribe to that here.)

I can read you like a book, Lynn. And not a very good book. Certainly not Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab. Which actually improves with every read!

- Alan Partridge

Who when they were young didn’t rinse a favourite VHS till the brown tape sagged and the onscreen image grew hems of static? Or play a DVD or CD to digital death, so it couldn’t get past even the first hurdle of scratches? Who didn’t re-read a favourite paperback till its spine was as lined as the tree it came from?

These associations with childhood might be why people think there’s something immature about re-reading or re-watching. As though an adult who does so is being self-indulgent — the ‘comfort read’ — or even thoughtlessly obsessive like the kid who puts on the same CGI romp for the fiftieth time. And yet only wanting new artistic experiences, and never re-reading/-watching/-listening might not be the sign of adventurousness or an avid cultural appetite you think. It might actually be a sign of a lifetime of art not even experienced… My claim is if you’ve read all of a good book once, you’ve only read half of it.

Your first read of a book is you reducing your ignorance of it from the initial total point, and therefore is necessarily incomplete. It’s like a painting…