not the new reading

August 7th, 2017

I just saw an ad for Audible (which I guess is a part of Amazon these days), with the slogan “Listening is the new reading.”

I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to advertising, but this really caught my eye. I confess that my immediate reaction was negative, at least in terms of fiction.

I’m not anti-technology, and I’m not anti-Amazon (I’m writing this on a Fire tablet, in fact). I’m not against listening to things being read to me — I have my own drafts read to me all the time, as I’ve talked about before.

And I’ve enjoyed some audio books quite a bit. Douglas Adams reading his own books, Frank McCourt (my high school English teacher 🙂 ) reading Angela’s Ashes, and Ron McClarty reading Inherent Vice (which I’ve listened to many times).

But it’s not the same as reading, because I think reading encourages deeper understanding. For one obvious reason, the fact that you can reread sections until you really understand them, and go back to earlier chapters to check things — either to remind yourself of things, or in light of later developments.

And even something as simple as the ability to go forward at your own pace.

But also, with art, there is always a point to experiencing it the way the artist intended. Most writers wrote their books to be read on a page.

I saw a documentary years ago about the Beat writers which brought this home. As I wrote in my review:

“Johnny Depp, Dennis Hopper and John Turturro show up to read Kerouac, Burroughs and Ginsberg (respectively, and respectfully), but obviously only Depp understands the difference between reading and acting. Turturro is mannered and awkward reading parts of ‘Howl’ (they should have got Patti Smith, or just shown footage of Ginsberg himself) and Dennis Hopper does okay with some Burroughs, but Burroughs himself was one of the great performers of his time, and Hopper doesn’t even come close to his wonderful, arid, sardonic rasp. Depp, however, obviously knows that novels and poems, unlike plays and screenplays, are designed to deliver their effects without any additional help, so he simply reads Kerouac’s words, as plainly as he can, and of course that’s all that’s necessary. I wish he’d done more.”

Entry Filed under: Tech Topics,writing

2 Comments Add your own

  • 1. SB Roberts  |  August 29th, 2017 at 11:38 am

    I had this same sort of discussion with my husband a few days ago. Having someone (in person or via technology) read a story aloud is great, but it’s very different than actually reading the book yourself. I suppose that’s why I like to be the one reading aloud. I can go back and reread things if I want to (or read ahead if my husband isn’t in the room yet : ) ).

  • 2. Anthony Lee Collins  |  August 30th, 2017 at 3:25 pm

    The first time I read a book in my life it was when my father was reading it to me every night before bed, and he wasn’t getting through it fast enough for me. So, one day I picked up the book myself during and started to read it.

    Of course, this may have been his plan. He was very pro-reading.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed


featured story

Links

recent posts

Categories

subscribe by email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

meta