READING GIRL’S MANIFESTO
- Reading is a weapon. Knowledge cuts sharper than a knife. Any girl who reads knows this.
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Reading is a survival mechanism. It is not “cute”. Anyone who ignores the might of the reading girl, dismisses her with a cursory wave of the hand– “oh, you know, she is just always in her books”-- does so to their own detriment. Any girl who reads knows this.
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Reading is an attack against oppression– it is intellectual transgression, subversive capability. Knowledge means I cut your tongue out of your throat and butcher you into tiny little pieces while I sit noiselessly, odourlessly, senselessly across from you. Any girl who reads knows this.
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Reading is freedom from outlines, fantasy you can touch with your fingertips, ecstasy of heart and body, dreaming, thinking, believing, amalgamated. And once you can read, these things can never be taken from you.
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Reading is cleaning up the messes that powerful men have left behind.
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Reading is pure romance, to allow ourself to embrace and fold over the thoughts and ideas of another in the palms of your own mind, if only for a brief moment, their imagination becomes warmed by the veins in your hands and neurons in your skull.
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Reading is far from a solitary activity. The image of the lone wolf reader is a farce. Reading is the product of thousands of years of evolution, of language, of human interaction. A reading girl is never alone, and a reading girl alone yearns for connection. Any girl who reads feels this.
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There is simply no room not to read. You must read or risk death. Any girl who reads knows this.
READING GIRL’S RULES
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The reading girl takes herself and other reading girls seriously.
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Outsiders are intimidated by the wealth of the reading girl’s intellect. This fear ultimately results in their denigration of her interests as trite or naive. She must never let this rob her of her dignity or shake the strength of knowledge in herself.
What does the reading girl know?