The meaning of reading
Professor Sunanda MAHENDRA
During my schooling days I had the chance of reading a small book
running about 100 pages 'How to read a book'. The two authors who had
designed and written the book were Mortimer J Adler and Charles van
Doren. Later on I found that these two authors are specialists on the
subject of how to read a book.
Quite a number of books have been written on the subject over the
years. Some guidance has been given on 'reading for a purpose' and
'reading as a habit'. Reading for purpose meant a good deal of selection
for a particular purpose, may it be a basic fact-finding and/or a
research project. As students at college level, there were no
assignments given to us those days. As such reading for a particular
purpose was quite remote. But times have changed with the subject areas,
teaching and learning techniques.
Today the student at the college level has to investigate and find
material for the assignments, which is part of the compulsory learning.
When it reaches the university level of education, the student who
becomes and undergraduate will have to do more reading via investigation
to prepare research projects, dissertations and assignments.
In addition the lecturers and students have to join in for combined
or group assignments and presentations. The main objective is to read as
much material as possible from various sources. With the advent of the
computer the facilities are wider and intensive. The student will be
guided to reach the best possible Internet sources to hunt for learning
material. This may not be a burden as scanning the pages of
encyclopaedias and books of knowledge.
Today the computer lends reading facilities as freely as possible.
Wikipedia is one such source, from which lots of reading material could
be sought. Then come the new terminologies on reading. Nowadays scholars
are bent on using the terms such as 're reading' and reading in a
different context from its initial usage. The term reading a film may
sound quite alien to the conventional scholar. But it had come to stay
in modern criticism.
The process is no fewer phenomenons than the textual analysis from
several standpoints. The term reading here refers to a certain clinical
dissection affiliated to the textual context. On viewing a film a common
spectator may leave the audience without much consideration on the
textual analysis to reach the intended aesthetic judgement. But it is
believed that the limitations of aesthetic judgement should overcome the
mere barriers of convention criticism, what is predominantly a common
literary judgement. As such reading here may not be confused with the
reading of a book though there are similarities. You may, for example,
read a page in the manner that is taught over the years. But it may not
be a rediscovery of the essential components gone into the creation of
the poem concerned is neglected. To achieve the intended goal of
rereading, the work has to be read or seen several times.
This may be a good discipline in reading. If the work is a poem, the
use of words, metaphors, rhymes, metres have to be examined. If the work
is a film, scene by scene could be clinically examined which is denoted
by the term 'mis-en-scene'. The person who so reads the 'cine text'
should be aware of the 'cinegrammar', which covers one portion of media
literacy. Even the term media literary lurks in the reading process. The
dichotomy is that the meanings denoted by the conventional form of
literacy had changed over the years with the growth of media technology.
In this manner instead of seeing or viewing the screen it has become a
reading function. In the formative stages of education there was one
period in the timetable devoted to silent reading of books. This is
presently transferred to reading the tele screen silently as a classroom
exercise. The classroom is gradually transformed into an auditorium.
PowerPoint presentation is yet another form of reading on a screen.
It is a metamorphosis of the use of the classroom blackboard followed by
the magic board. However much the evolutionary matters are concerned,
several basic issues have to be addressed. Is the book a vanishing form
from the reader? Should the new formats of the book not to be changed to
suit some of the modern temperaments?
Can't the age-old books be redesigned to suit new reading conditions
and how can it be done well? In this direction the emphasis is more
elapid on the production of children's and adolescent books. How to read
a book, still remains a vital question. It is regarded as an activity
performed with the kindling of interest among reading groups. The way of
a book is written matters here. I often come across books, which are
unreadable. But I fail to drive in this point to the writers concerned
learning the misgivings.
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