I seldom have peeves because I have a mosquito’s attention span. I hop from one interest to the next and trance out on all things shiny and pretty. So the moment something gets my goat, you can be sure it’s something really worth huffing about because I’m laidback and lazy - people and their doings do not interest me or if they do, then it’s all for five minutes or so. But here’s a peeve I just can’t shuck off because it bothered me then and it still bothers me now.

I don’t like absolutists. They’re worse than elitists. Elitists simply favor a certain group, person, place, or idea. Absolutists, on the other hand, cling to only one of a certain thing, clings to it so vehemently it’s either their way or the highway. Ergo, if you’re not X, then you could only be Y. If you’re not academically intelligent, then you could only be dumb - which pretty much stomps on Howard Gardner’s multiply intelligences, does it not?

My point is, we would all have been stuck in the Middle Ages if the whole human race had been absolutists. There would have been no theory of evolution, no recognition of the sun or the fact that the earth belongs to a solar system. Perhaps we would still now be worshipping totems or tattooing our bodies every time we return from a headhunting expedition.

Sometime back, a person I know sneered at contemporary authors. “I don’t read them,” she said haughtily, “I only read classics.” I was stunned by the stupidity of that remark. Read ONLY classics? Did she really mean that or did she say it merely to impress? Because if it was the latter, then I was not at all bowled over - not at all. She was 30 when she made that remark. If, at 30, you’re a self-proclaimed bookworm who is only discovering the classics and read nothing else because you feel no other book passes muster, that’s pathetic. I read Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal in 4th grade. That was the year I learned how effective and beautiful satire can be and I carried that love for satire through adulthood, later on delighting in the works of Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut. From then on, from age 8 to present, I learned to appreciate different writing styles, love certain authors, and respect even those whose works I didn’t like. My early exposure to the classics did not turn me into a book snob of sorts. What it made me was a lover of books thick and thin, big or small, famous or obscure, classic or not. I am indebted to all the books I’ve read. They improved my vocabulary and helped me develop a skill I never knew was a skill until much later - speed reading. Most importantly, they taught me to dream. They showed me that in a world as big as ours, anything is possible.

So yes, even to this day, I find absolutism offensive especially where books are concerned. Priceless ancient libraries were burned because of absolutism. Books were banned because of absolutism. The church ex-communicated several writers, philosophers, and scientists because of absolutism. Absolutism is the true mark of a narrow mind. I’m no genius but I do know that the more I learn, the more I realize I still have a lot left to learn - and that definitely includes expanding my reading list to include Banana Yoshimoto, Bob Ong, and anyone else whose work I’ve never read before.