You Say I Say

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In September 1962 two 18-year-old freshmen at Brown University named Bob Waxler and David Beckman first crossed paths. They quickly discovered they had a lot in common especially an abiding fascination with language literature and the life of art. Four years later as college seniors they collaborated on a small book of poems which brought them a flurry of attention then faded into memory as the two friends began separate life journeys-Bob becoming a professor of literature at a Massachusetts college David working as an advertising and promotion writer in New York with sidelines as a poet playwright and actor.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In 2014 an article in the Brown alumni journal rekindled their connection. It sparked an exchange of emails that gradually blossomed into this book-an extended dialogue between two old friends on poetry life the passage of time and the power of the written word.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>You Say I Say</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> Waxler and Beckman trade observations opinions questions and arguments about the ways in which literature transforms challenges disturbs and inspires us. Spurred by lifetimes largely dedicated to deep reading they debate the meaning and value of works ranging from Dante's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Inferno</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> and Shakespeare's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>King Lear</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> to Tolstoy's </span><em style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Death of Ivan Ilych</em><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>; the poems of Wordsworth Blake Coleridge and Keats; and the works of T.S. Eliot Kafka Beckett and Joyce. They often uncover new and surprising facets of classic works in the glare of post-modern experience. And they even exchange a couple of new poems-their own work-triggering reflections on the creative process and its many unexpected twists.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Along the way Waxler and Beckman delve into questions that have haunted generations of readers and critics. And they reveal directly and indirectly how encounters with literature have shaped their intellects and their lives.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In a world increasingly dominated by visual and electronic noise </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>You Say I Say</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> captures the enduring power of literature-not to resolve the great questions of human existence but to help us explore those questions in ways that are eye-opening life-changing and profound.</span></p><p></p>