“We don’t have genes for reading. It’s an activity we invented, and by doing it, we show that our brain has the capacity to go beyond itself, to take all these circuits that were created for oral language or vision, and do something entirely different with them — deduction, critical analysis, imagination, contemplation.”
Dr. Maryanne Wolf
author of “Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain”
The Endless First Chapter
2 comments:
boy I think back to myself when I was a young teenager, and I read ALOT of books. Didn't I read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" ? I also read Herman Hesse, and found Narcissus and Goldmund to be very influencial..... I too read the same number of words as before, but not with any depth, and that is a failing. What keeps me engaged though and helps to balance the modern condition is in my creative side----my own writing and visual composition, which I feel is the superior to the compulsion of reading as I did as a kid. Your writing and blogging is the same outlet I believe.
I've been thinking about this quite a bit... the relationship of literary fiction and prose to the visual arts. I'm trying to work up to an essay about it.
I don't count the daily reading of blogs, newspapers, etc etc. in this context.
Short Stories, Poetry, Novels, Essays... as essential elements of artistic maturity. I ponder this topic every day.
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