Curator—Iryna Slavinska
“Now you are a recruit: practicing deeds, over time you will become a warrior.”
These lines end the poetic text from one of Hryhorii Skovoroda’s letters to Mykhailo Kovalynskyi. In that part, the philosopher asks: “So, what remains?” And he himself answers: “To read blessed books.” And from the note about reading and the fact that “it is not enough to hide it in oneself” he comes to the image of a recruit—a future warrior. A recruit—a person who learns to act. A person for whom a future rank awaits.
In Ukrainian realia, such a line of thought—from a reader to a warrior—is not a gesture of artistic creation. It is almost a documentary-like reproduction of reality.
Reading in wartime has truly become a gesture of courage, a gesture of freedom, a gesture of liberation, a gesture of emancipation, a gesture of relief.
I would have given a lot for the opportunity to write the previous paragraph as just pompous words about nothing. However, eleven years of the war do not suggest such luxury.
Reading in the trenches, in the bomb shelters, in hospitals, in the training centers. Reading in captivity. Reading under occupation. Over and over again, those who have survived borderline experiences talk about their books and their reading. From the inability to read, from being deprived of the right to read—to reading as the only way to escape from the unbearable.
It is not for nothing that since 2014 the Russian invaders have been consistently attacking books in libraries—Ukrainian books in Ukrainian libraries. They burn some brazenly, and seize others silently. Leaving no trace.
That is why different forms of existence of books take on new significance. It is not the objects that matter, but the environment. Books are now more visible than ever as centers of community building. Books are now more visible than ever as centers of solitude spaces as well. A large festival or a small book discussion club, a large-scale public reading, a radio broadcast with national coverage or private listening to a podcast in the headphones… All of these are important ways of interacting with books. Ways of reading? Perhaps. Ways of cherishing and welcoming life? Probably.
Reading is an act of resilience and subjectivity. A book is our defense, our arsenal.