Reading the Mind
The practice of reading or writing comes built in with a certain logic. This begins at the level of the alphabet, proceeds past meaning (which, to be useful, must be accepted by consensus) and then on to the real or imagined literary traditions within which a piece of writing is located.
Given that the disturbed psyche often demands a re-enactment of meaning, given that the different mind may imbue words with other meanings, deeper and often menacing, how then can a book get you closer to understanding yourself and the 'mentally ill' Other? What can reading do when logic may be roadkill? In this talk, Jerry Pinto brought his experience in writing about the personal, about gathering impersonally the personal accounts of others, and of translating a personal account of ‘mental illness’.
About the Author
Jerry Pinto is a poet, writer, teacher and editor. His first novel Em and the Big Hoom has won multiple awards including the Windham-Campbell Award from the Beinicke Library, Yale, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Crossword Prize and the Hindu Lit for Life award. He is the editor of A Book of Light: When A Loved One Has a Different Mind, and the translator of Swadesh Deepak's I Have Not Seen Mandu: A Fractured Collage.
