Reading a Book
by Michael Laird, LCSW
If you think something’s happened quickly, you’re looking at only a part of it.
Sarah Manguso,, The Two Kinds of Decay
In April of 2014, I found myself on the verge of completing my MSW program and officially starting my first paid social work job for a union-based employee assistance program in Chicago. The job required me to take the train into the city every day. I quickly realized that taking the train gave me a significant amount of idle time. Finding idle time to be somewhat painful, I knew I would have to figure out how to make the time pleasurable, but also constructive.
Having spent the previous few years in graduate school reading texts about research methods, human behavior in the social environment, and community practice, I had neglected spending time reading subjects that had previously given my interior life fulfillment and joy. With my shelves already filled with philosophy and political science texts from my undergraduate years, and new shelves filled with social work texts from my graduate years, I decided to fill in some holes in an attempt to be a “more rounded” reader. Literary fiction had represented the biggest hole in my library, so I began reading novels. Nearly five years later, I have discovered that literary fiction has informed my social work practice in ways both personally and professionally rewarding.
Social workers aim to “enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty” (NASW, 2018), and reading literary fiction proves to be complementary toward this aim. Literary fiction is sometimes considered “serious fiction” as a way to distinguish itself from commercial or genre fiction. In a general sense, if commercial and genre fiction offer entertaining forms of easy escape, literary fiction places emphasis on the human condition while asking the reader to take a much more active role in analyzing the text in order to arrive at a meaning.
The meaning we derive from a novel is dependent on the “lens” we use to analyze the text. Assuming that meaning is subjective, there are an infinite number of “lenses” one can use to understand a text. It is common for literature students to use theories that originated from various schools of philosophy.
For example, let’s look at the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. A reader may use Marx’s theory on wage labor and capital to better understand why children would be forced to live and work in such squalid conditions. Alternately, another reader may find that Marx’s theory does not put enough emphasis on gender oppression and instead use Gayle Rubin’s The Traffic in Women to deconstruct class oppression in order to construct a different meaning on why the characters would be forced to live and work in the same squalid conditions.
According to the Council on Social Work Education (2015), “Social work competence is the ability to integrate and apply social work knowledge, values, and skills to practice situations in a purposeful, intentional, and professional manner to promote human and community well-being.” As social workers, we can apply social work knowledge, values, and skills in a purposeful and intentional way to literary fiction as a way to strengthen our craft.
During the first few months of riding the train, I was relearning how to read for fun. Some of those early novels could easily have been categorized into the “commercial” or “genre” fiction category. As the months passed by, I began seeking out novels with deeper themes. I was looking for novels that could expose ironies, paradoxes, and social injustices that exist in our society. Ultimately, I was looking for novels that could help me better understand the world I live in as an emerging social worker in the field.
Before long, I was reading novels that were not only becoming increasingly complex, but were also being written by authors who did not share my experience as a middle-class American with European ancestry. I also discovered that some of those novels challenged me to be more attuned to cultural differences.
By way of example, The Box Man by Kobo Abe, first published in 1973 in Japan, is a challenging and disorienting novel about identity. Box men are people who have spontaneously abandoned their lives to anonymously exist in the world by living inside a box. Two major themes in the novel revolve around identity and the consequences of the gaze.
Abe offers few direct examples for why box men behave the way they do. In a brief account, it is revealed that one of the box men experienced shame as a child as a result of speaking the wrong lines during a performance at his primary school. His classmates ridiculed him, and a fight ensued. He was not injured, but he later
...became terribly nearsighted and squeezed some glasses out of [his] miserly parents. Myopia developed because [he] deliberately used to read books and magazines with fine print in dark places. [He] just wanted to run away from seeing and from being seen.
The reason for the character wearing glasses is never explained, but this is where the work of the reader is crucial to gaining insight. Eyeglasses are usually worn to see more clearly. Yes, somebody wearing glasses can presumably see better, but what is the perception of somebody looking at another who is wearing eyeglasses? Was this child choosing to wear glasses as a way to become more like the seer (as in, I have glasses and can see you, too) and less like the one being seen? Was he trying to masquerade? Did he eventually feel so ashamed of his failure that he no longer wanted to identify with others, nor let others identify with him? Could this have been the first behavior that eventually culminated in his decision to become a box man?
As social workers, we can think of the box as a metaphor for escaping shame and the sense that one is different and unaccepted by peers, family members, and the community. Who in our society today might generally feel different and unaccepted by others? For a moment, imagine that a box man walks into your office and he or she is seeking help. Perhaps the box man says to you that he or she no longer wants to live inside the box and is ready to remove it, but needs help in doing so.
It is our professional obligation to use our knowledge to understand what the box signifies and apply the tools at our disposal in a culturally competent way to assist the client. What theory do we want to use to better understand our client? We have many theories at our disposal—systems theory, social learning theory, psychosocial development theory, psychodynamic theory, and others. After a thorough assessment, therapeutic approaches may include cognitive-behavioral therapy, existential therapy, narrative therapy, an eclectic mix of different treatment methods, or a referral for service delivery.
While The Box Man offered a complex story of identity and shame, other novels I’ve read focused on a wide variety of relevant topics to social work. Some of the more memorable novels include The Vegetarian by Han Kang (mental health and society/culture), Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (addiction), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (immigration and sexuality), and Jazz by Toni Morrison (intergenerational trauma and oppression).
In the nearly five years since I finished graduate school, I have read more than 60 novels. Many of those novels took me well outside my comfort zone, both in experience and vernacular. However, the hard work the novels required of me has only strengthened my ability to be a more competent and professional social worker. I would encourage any new or seasoned social worker to use literary fiction as a way to strengthen their craft.
References
Abe, K. (1973). The box man. New York, NY: Vintage International.
Council on Social Work Education. (2015). Educational policy and accreditation standards for baccalaureate and master’s programs. Retrieved from: https://www.cswe.org/getattachment/Accreditation/Accreditation-Process/2015-EPAS/2015EPAS_Web_FINAL.pdf.aspx
National Association of Social Workers. (2018). Code of Ethics. Retrieved from https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English.aspx
Mike Laird is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Employee Assistance Professional. He currently works at a union-based employee assistance program in Illinois.