READING
I’ve been struggling, mightily, with the makings of a book. Found three “editors;” one local, one in Orlando, and one in NY. Based on those three, and aware that it’s a small sample, if I had to draw anything like a conclusion, I’d have to say, “I wonder if, maybe, editors are NOT READERS.”
Now I don’t claim to be an expert in the “science” of reading. I have to go on my efforts to “teach it.” I’m not even sure it can be taught! Daughter Donna says that she learned to love reading through me. Because she was our first-born, and I had a little more time in those years, and I was a new father, I did spend a lot with her on my lap and reading who-knows-what to her.
Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird reported that she also learned to read (the newspaper) on daddy’s lap. Donna is now a prodigious reader. She cranks out books like they were endangered species. When she’s desperate, she’ll re-read ‘em! I believe that reading is not even 75% of what the writer presents to us. I’ll be generous and give him half.
The other half is what WE BRING to his product. (Friend Bob calls it the emotional baggage.) Exhibit A: my mother died on Mother’s Day (and my 9th birthday, May 10th, 1936.) When I read something, anything, that sidles up alongside a tender story of motherhood, or of maternal instinct, or if there is a verbal image of a dark, smiling, plump woman of the 1930’s, don’t you think I bring a potential for tears?
Is it important whether those salty drops are in remembrance of her, or for my loss? Won’t those tears cause me to get involved in that printed page to a greater degree? Exhibit B: Donna and I love to exchange views on Gone With the Wind. Now, GWTW is sacred to that girl. Talk about tears, she can cry when Brett says, “Frankly, my dear…”
Our eldest identifies strongly with something in Scarlet O’Hara. I keep asking if Melanie isn’t a more sympathetic character? There is no way we will ever agree, and it sure doesn’t matter. Not one bit. I take a fondness for Melanie (is she an ‘underdog?’) (a victim?) to the book with me. I become a strong “fan” of hers for whatever reason. Donna takes a loyalty for Scarlet with her, and we become competitive, but loving rivals (just as they are?)
Exhibit C: About 20+ years ago, I discovered a little book that took on a life of its own. It is called, The Education of Little tree. It is NOT a very well-written book! It has a degree of profanity I could do without. There have been some clouds over the author’s name. But I’ll bet that I bought and gave as gifts over a dozen copies! (Maybe 20!) The foundation for the book is in some Cherokee beliefs and cultural lore.
Little Tree and his Grandpa communicate via the Dog Star! I can buy that., and it’s because I can accept that people can COMMUNE. I may not be able to, and I don’t know, personally, any who can, but my imagination (another tool I bring to the written word) tells me that commune, communicate, and prayer are not alien to each other. (And I have felt prayers.)
In conclusion, I assigned “Little Tree” to a university class in remedial English years ago. I could FEEL the resistance when I showed them the cover of the book: right off the “juvenile” shelf! I made them an offer. I told them, that if anyone felt cheated out of his two dollars, or whatever very reasonable cost, I would buy back their copy. Out of two classes of 25 each, two or three asked for the refund. I could cite many more exhibits.
Reading is, I firmly believe, an active process that requires the reader to bring something of his unique, personal experience to the printed word. Be it bias, or belief, reality or fantasy, it is his or her contribution to a form of communication. Written words can evoke tears, printed words can summon laughter, visual words can help us dream. But not unless we bring the willingness to receive, the hopefulness of a relationship.
Donna and Harper Lee had the distinct advantage (one we can ALL provide to our children) of hearing (inflection, pronunciation, and feeling) Those which are the priceless enhancements of the printed icon.
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2 comments:
I couldn't agree more with you here-- what the reader brings to the writing.
You may recall my eldest son Mark was in your English class-- but what you may not know, was that his mother READ to him every night--AND, despite being dyslexic, he continued to read. When his younger brother bought Indian souvenirs during out camping trips, Mark bought BOOKS.
All through elementary school, he tested 2-3 grades BELOW level-- yet by his sophomore year, he had reached grade 10. I firmly believe that his successes were a direct result of his mother's devotion to reading.
Howlin'
Your "internal dialogue" that weighed the interaction between READERS and EDITORS (and perhaps 'writers' as well) prompted my own 40 year introspection about TEACHING and LEARNING.
The singular comment by any administrator that ever had any value for me was Hawkins's observation, that I "... asked good questions." He was referring to questions that: (A) 'probe' and direct someone to 'think' and (B)
enlighten the 'asker' about the respondent's knowledge or information.
In a word, 'where' is that block to learning?
Too often teachers neglect the need to discover "where" his student is "at"-- instead, proffering fact after fact that has little or no significance for the intended learner. There is no more 'interaction' than one would get from a tape-recorder-- or TV set.
I think I had instinctively always asked 'probing' questions, but that idea had never been articulated for me.
I often wonder how much more effective I could have been had I consciously nurtured that strategy much earlier in my career.
Howlin'
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