Reading Blindly: Literature, Otherness, and the Possibility of an ...

Introduction

On Reading

A Pact With the Devil

How does one read properly, that is, ethically?

In an examination of this question, a questioning of the question, there is an obvious link between the terms how and ethically; both involve choice, and choosing. Whenever a “how” is invoked, the subject has to choose between one or more options. However, for a situation to involve ethics, there must be a choice made in which the singularity making the choice is responsible to and for all the other(s) in that situation: it is this singularity, this particularity, which makes the choice a proper one. There is a crucial difference between the choice in the situation of a “how” and the choice in an “ethical situation.” The choice in “how” involves alternatives which are already laid out before us: hence, the decision made is calculated, calculable, part of a system. In a true ethical situation, the choice is always made in a moment of