'Me and one person I spoke to' = 'Nobody can read like they used to'
Okay, this is a bit of classic instance of getting a column, for which the person has presumably been paid, out of something that they have observed in themself, &/or in a Very Small And Probably Unrepresentative Sample of people they met during the last week. (One writer mate and his toddler niece, in this instance.)
I have forgotten how to read.
I would hazard that even Before The Internet, even passionate and committed readers sometimes went through dry spells, periods in which: I set myself the task of reading a single chapter in one sitting. Simple. But I couldn't. There was nothing wrong with my eyes. No stroke or disease clouded my way. Yet - if I'm being honest - the failure was also not a surprise.
Paragraphs swirled; sentences snapped like twigs; and sentiments bled out. The usual, these days. I drag my vision across the page and process little.
But this has to be made SYMBOLICKAL of the Ills of Modern Life and the impending obsolence of literacy (or at least its retreat to becoming a niche skill).
Quite apart from the fact that I see evidence all around me that people still commit to reading books and talking about them in person or online, I somewhat wonder at a person who cannot shift reading modes.
And whether there is some deeper angst about this guy's identity as A Writer (of, one rather apprehends, Big Thinks).
'The human brain was never designed to read': there were a lot of things the human brain was not designed to do, because, well, it wasn't actually designed with a particular purpose in mind; what it has done is evolve the capacity to read, over centuries and numerous cultures. This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2729964.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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