A few thoughts after downloading Boswell's Life of Johnson for my iPhone

When I noticed Boswell's Life of Johnson available as an application for the iPhone I did not hesitate. Even abridged, having Boswell and Johnson around with me made me too happy to even imagine. Wherever I was, and I saw myself in terrifying and boring places, pleasant places, there would be Boswell telling me about Johnson to wile away the time in better company than I would otherwise have (I mean, they would add much to any dinner party). So I downloaded it.

In the shower afterward I had a vaguely troubling thought. I was thinking about Samuel Johnson, the teachers who showed me his brilliance and gave me the keys they had to approach him and I began to wonder why I loved Johnson more than Blake.

I know they're not directly connected, and that style and matters of thought might be quite different to them, but they were writers who I was exposed to in equal measure, and who I have read with equal fervor. So why was my preference for Johnson rather than the radical prophet? This wasn't an aesthetic judgment, or an agreement of philosophies, I don't know if I have a nuanced understanding to the point where my preference could be founded on those kinds of foundations. Instead, I suppose it was a personal sense, and maybe it was Johnson's doubts at the end of the day, that appealed to me more than the certainties of Blake - though Blake's touch seems more modern, more direct and more dizzying. I don't know though, the sheer audacity of taking on the Dictionary is pretty brilliant.

I don't want to think too deeply on this, because writing intelligently about it would take time and I haven't eaten today. But it was on my mind, and I'd never really realized, I suppose, how much more I love Johnson than most writers. My feelings of almost relief at thinking I could have The Life around with me wherever I went surprised me and made me wonder at what this preference for someone of Johnson's character said about me.