The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ”˜I’ve read it already’ to be a conclusive argument against reading a work. We have all known women who remembered a novel so dimly that they had to stand for half an hour in the library skimming through it before they were certain they had once read it. But the moment they became certain, they rejected it immediately. It was for them dead, like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday’s newspaper; they had already used it. Those who read great
works, on the other hand, will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life.”
–C.S.Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism
We have all known women who remembered a novel so dimly that they had to stand for half an hour in the library skimming through it before they were certain they had once read it.
It’s odd how if a modern man had said this, his reputation and credibility would be finished. But if a man now dead said it, we don’t particularly judge him. The people who might be offended by the stereotype will still respect his other writings, but wouldn’t consider the question of whether the stereotype might have something to it.
Attitudes toward the writings of Holy Scripture seem to follow similar patterns.