'You don't actually know anything, do you?', W. says. 'You've got no body of knowledge'. W. has ancient Hebrew, of course, and he can play classical guitar. And there are whole philosophical oeuvres with which he is familiar. – 'You see, I know something. What do you know?' I've read about things, he knows that, W. says. I've read about ancient Greek and about ancient Sanskrit. I've read about whole philosophical oeuvres. But reading about things is not a reading of the things themselves.
'You can only get so far as a Hindu scholar with Hinduism For Idiots as your guide', W. says. Why haven't I learnt that yet? – 'Secondary literature! You're always reading secondary literature! No one reads secondary literature but you'. W. is a man of primary literature, he says, and always in the original language. Primary literature, and always as obscure and half-forgotten as possible.
Lars Iyer's Blog 