Exercise 2

So apart from the above book what have I read, seen and heard.

The OCA manuals for my next lessons, The Artist magazine,and I watched American Made, read the Mail on Sunday in particular a story about the Lightening Process, read Dan Brown Origin and reseached textiles and how to build a log shed roof on the internet, and the news. How many stories probably a lot but like most people they do not always stay with me, I remember the ones that are of interest to me! American Made was a story about a pilot who worked with the American CIA in the Iran/Contra affair. People in the local shops tell me of things in their life, how they lost and found their purse, where there are bargains etc.

How much of it was art? some say writing is an art form reading is appreciation, though is it an art or a skill to read the meaning between the words? Writing on multiple layers to explain the inexplainable – art form?

Shakespeare was a master of condensing , using few words to explain both a concept and its implications in its entirety. In Shakepeare’s day the dowry was a real practice. The larger the dowry, the more desirable the wife to be. So when Shakespeare says in a few words: “she has her own dowry” it speaks volumes.

Lewis Carroll write ” In order to say nothing, one must say something.”

Transactional reading theory says that a story or a book is not what it is simply a piece of text, it is a piece of text plus what you perceive it to be, different for each person.

http://www.readfaster.com/articles/reading-as-a-form-of-art

Reading is actually a form of art, in part because the kinesthetic link between sight, sound and speech is mirrored by inner speech, inner sight and inner sound.

Our thoughts are a combination of inner sight and inner speech. With this inner kinesthesia, enhanced by our individual creativeness, we name things as we see them and form images of things about which we hear.

An able contemporary reader reading silently will hear an inner voice, which may call up inner sight. When the term “image” is used, it seldom refers to anything that can be seen on the page, but rather the inner vision of the reader.

For many people, reading is sometimes a dreary task. Its main objective (even in fiction) has become the acquisition of data. Standardized orthography and usage have taken the fluidity and magic out of the language and encouraged silent reading.

Reading is now something most people want to get out of the way as quickly as possible, and speed reading is perceived as the ideal way to read.

Since speed reading alters the order of words, makes some words disappear or pass in a blur, negates the timing of poetry, suppresses the sensations of inner and outer ear as well as the throat, tongue and mouth, it deadens the physical bases of language and is completely incompatible with poetry.

Even people who don’t know how to read faster approach reading as if they did, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible and trying to avoid its physical qualities as much as they can.

Since the late 20th century, large numbers of people in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and others countries have been trained to read at twice and even three times their original speed without losing any of the comprehension of the material which they are reading, and in some cases with a slight improvement in comprehension.

Evidence accumulated from reading efficiency courses in the last century indicated that individuals reading for a general understanding of everyday reading material could attain speeds of 300 to 800 words per minute after brief training in speed reading techniques, with a pronounced increase in comprehension.

As noted by one author: “Faster reading leads to more reading, which leads to more varied reading, which leads to better reading, which leads to a better understanding of one’s work, one’s leisure interests and oneself.”

What is certain is that most readers are capable of reading material of easy and average difficulty (for them) far faster than they do.

It is also certain that the mind is capable of receiving and assimilating ideas more quickly than they are presented to the reading eye.

In addition, it is certain that fast readers are efficient readers. Also, the faster you read, the more time you will have for reading.

Here is an interesting website that explores stories as art.

https://storifiedart.co.uk/ designed to educate children but also shows what we as adults can achieve through stories.

Reading as a Form of Art

Category: Reading Education

Reading is actually a form of art, in part because the kinesthetic link between sight, sound and speech is mirrored by inner speech, inner sight and inner sound.

Our thoughts are a combination of inner sight and inner speech. With this inner kinesthesia, enhanced by our individual creativeness, we name things as we see them and form images of things about which we hear.

An able contemporary reader reading silently will hear an inner voice, which may call up inner sight. When the term “image” is used, it seldom refers to anything that can be seen on the page, but rather the inner vision of the reader.

For many people, reading is sometimes a dreary task. Its main objective (even in fiction) has become the acquisition of data. Standardized orthography and usage have taken the fluidity and magic out of the language and encouraged silent reading.

Reading is now something most people want to get out of the way as quickly as possible, and speed reading is perceived as the ideal way to read.

Since speed reading alters the order of words, makes some words disappear or pass in a blur, negates the timing of poetry, suppresses the sensations of inner and outer ear as well as the throat, tongue and mouth, it deadens the physical bases of language and is completely incompatible with poetry.

Even people who don’t know how to read faster approach reading as if they did, wanting to get it over with as soon as possible and trying to avoid its physical qualities as much as they can.

Since the late 20th century, large numbers of people in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and others countries have been trained to read at twice and even three times their original speed without losing any of the comprehension of the material which they are reading, and in some cases with a slight improvement in comprehension.

Evidence accumulated from reading efficiency courses in the last century indicated that individuals reading for a general understanding of everyday reading material could attain speeds of 300 to 800 words per minute after brief training in speed reading techniques, with a pronounced increase in comprehension.

As noted by one author: “Faster reading leads to more reading, which leads to more varied reading, which leads to better reading, which leads to a better understanding of one’s work, one’s leisure interests and oneself.”

What is certain is that most readers are capable of reading material of easy and average difficulty (for them) far faster than they do.

It is also certain that the mind is capable of receiving and assimilating ideas more quickly than they are presented to the reading eye.

In addition, it is certain that fast readers are efficient readers. Also, the faster you read, the more time you will have for reading.

The Invention of Printing

Category: Reading Education

Before the invention of printing, the number of manuscript books in Europe could be counted in the thousands. By 1500, after only 50 years of printing, there were more than 9 million books. The initial wildly competitive period of printing ran well into the 16th century, finally settling down around 1550, due to various controls designed to regulate its growth and impact.

The introduction of printing with moveable type in the Middle Ages was the beginning of the Information Explosion. Printing has been called the great German contribution to civilization; so much so that in its early days it was known as “the German art.”

After its invention of printing with moveable type (about 1440-50) by Johannes Gutenberg (a goldsmith in Mainz), early examples were disseminated with a combination of missionary zeal and heightened commercial value, largely by Germans and largely along the trade routes of German merchants.

By 1500 there were presses in some 60 German towns. From there, printing spread to Denmark, Sweden, Rostock, Danzig, and Russia, though the first printer who went to Russia was apparently murdered before he could achieve anything. (Printing first began in Russia in 1552, with the help of a printer from Copenhagen.)

Over the next couple of centuries, pamphlets, newspapers and magazines began to flower.

During the 18th century, for example, the book trade in the American colonies began to flourish. Printing had begun in 1639 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, followed by Boston in 1674, Philadelphia in 1685, and New York City in 1693. However, it was difficult for colonial printers to produce large works because of a shortage of type. (Also, until 1769, American printers had to import their presses from England.) Most publications related to law books, primers, almanacs and theological works.

Books in the American colonies were sold in a variety of ways – by subscription, by printers, by hawkers and through selected shops. The first colonial bookseller is generally believed to have been Hezekiah Usher of Boston, who began selling books in his store around 1647.

As books became cheaper to print, it became worthwhile for the ordinary man to learn how to read. This especially involved such art forms as the prose novel, which appealed to the growing middle class rather than to the old-time clerical class of literates.

Middle-class readers soon began to delve into history, geography and science subjects in a way that would have amazed his ancestors who, unless they became involved in a war, never ventured more than twenty miles from their birthplace – in fact or in mind.

With development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of mechanical typesetting and power presses, printed material became cheaper still, so much so that by the 1940s one could buy a paperback book with the wages of a laborer’s half-hour of work.

Now, in the 21st century, the widespread use of computers and communications satellites will inevitably bring about a greatly expanded Information Explosion, with even more impact than what occurred with the invention of printing.

Increasing one’s reading speed is a necessity to cope with the explosion of information to which we are all exposed in today’s information-based society.

http://www.readfaster.com/articles/reading-as-a-form-of-art

How much of what I have seen or heard is art? That is a tough and interesting question. I definitely feel that there is an art to writing engaging prose of any kind – it seems to me to go beyond a simple matter of craft. For example some would say that there is no art in Dan Brown’s book it is fluff, I think however that there is an art to writing an engaging book, the characters are rounded and alive. Everything we read/hear is different, often it is the target audience that makes all the difference. Story telling is the most effective way to merge meaning and emotions.