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I wholeheartedly agree that reading print on paper provides an experience which is very different from reading glowing dots on a screen or listening to an audio version of thet same story.
I've found that there's a similar problem when trying to write a story. When I was writing in plain text (a few years ago now), I could manage to write several hundred words in a few days. Now that I'm trying to write a story in "Interactive Fiction" format, I manage to find many more ways to procrastinate since there are so many options to explore in how the words get presented to the reader. In other words, I find debugging software to be much easier and more fun than writing the story itself.
FWIW, I'm using the SugarCube story format, compiled into HTML (I.E. a Web page) using Tweego. One can also use the "Integrated Development Environment" called Twine2 to implement Interactive Fiction, but I found it too limiting in some ways.
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People’s perceptions of the difference between reading on an online device and a paper book are always interesting. Personally in recent years I tend to read much fiction on my iPad kindle app, and purchase nonfiction hardcovers.
But I want to make sure I’m being clear that that is just one dimension of the issue I’m trying to raise.
The bigger issue to me isn’t about the device. It’s about the way reading has changed as we consume so much information in what technically could be called reading. But it’s not reading in the deep immersive way that is most satisfying, and which allows us to interact with the text, and which allows our own responses, ideas and histories to enrich the experience. Instead, reading the constant barrage of interesting online articles, new journalistic pieces, and the deluge of stuff that comes at us in this data-driven world of consumer information is something we do constantly and differently. It’s somewhat more like skimming or speed reading. It’s picking out pertinent facts and ideas; it’s distracted; it doesn’t have our full attention; we don’t want to commit the kind of slow time to it, time to appreciate the beauty of its language and the power of its ideas, we need to get through the deluge. I believe that whether we realize it or not, this kind of constant daily absorbing of information affects our reading of fiction as well. Perhaps without being aware of it, we train ourselves to read differently, and the we are less likely to read in the deep immersive way in which we learned to love reading and books in the first place. I think this can be fixed, but it’s a challenge, and something that needs our attention and our self awareness. I hope you know what I mean.
Last edited by starexplorer (11/25/2022 1:12 pm)
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It seems to me, Star, that what you are describing is symptomatic of a broader societal malaise, one that I feel is becoming gradually universal in nature. I experience this aspect of it too - I can't read as deeply as I once did because I don't have the time. I'm trying to read or scan too broadly instead.
It reminds me very much of a condition I saw described recently by Venkatesh Rao as 'ark head' in which we increasingly respond practically to the world without even attempting to make sense of it.
Here's his definition:
One mental model for this condition is what I call ark head, as in Noah’s Ark. We’ve given up on the prospect of actually solving or managing most of the snowballing global problems and crises we’re hurtling towards. Or even meaningfully comprehending the gestalt. We’ve accepted that some large fraction of those problems will go unsolved and unmanaged, and result in a drastic but unevenly distributed reduction in quality of life for most of humanity over the next few decades. We’ve concluded that the rational response is to restrict our concerns to a small subset of local reality–an ark–and compete for a shrinking set of resources with others doing the same. We’re content to find and inhabit just one zone of positivity, large enough for ourselves and some friends.
(The full article is at )
I wonder if it's a necessary prerequisite for near-future dystopias such as those forecast by writers such as Paul McAuley in his tales of the Spasm, William Gibson's the Jackpot, Dave Hutchinson's Fractured Europe and suchlike. It feels at times as if they're all converging in our timeline.
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Surtac wrote:
We’ve concluded that the rational response is to restrict our concerns to a small subset of local reality–an ark–and compete for a shrinking set of resources with others doing the same. We’re content to find and inhabit just one zone of positivity, large enough for ourselves and some friends.
Interesting take, ‘tac. There may well be affinities to a larger sense of helplessness and despair. A counter to that - bringing this back to reading itself - might be that I suspect those most committed to global change and mitigation, those most infused with optimism and activism, are also reading in the same manner we are discussing, and suffering a loss as a result.
But I suspect you are right that in some sense we are dealing with the latest consequence of modernity: the introduction of a new technology on a massive scale, with no sense of the outcome. And with no inkling at the beginning of whether we ought to be concerned, and if so about what. In a substantial sense all of modernity is one massive uncontrolled experiment, with billions of lives at stake… a small change in food production could imperil the globe. In this case, something as basic and old as reading is undergoing an unanticipated change, one no one agreed to in advance. I myself am not hopeless about the world or reading, although I’m very very concerned. I am going to consciously try to change my reading practices, and to attempt to set aside uninterrupted time, to read more slowly, and to reclaim both one of the great joys of life, but also a valuable and irreplaceable mode of experience. We’ll see how it goes -
Last edited by starexplorer (11/26/2022 3:14 pm)
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I wish you the best of luck with that, Star. I tried to do something similar when I retired last year: set aside some time each day for regular favourite activities (reading, listening to music, exercise, my own study / research projects etc) but the reality of living in a household that is accurately named Chateau Dysfunction has shown how difficult that can be when I am the individual in the household who is most easily and regularly interrupted - expected to serve as and continually treated as a captive audience of one.
One thing I have found advantageous lately is to move my e-reading from the Kindle app on the PC back to the Kindle device, where I am less likely to distract myself by stopping and digging for a reference or jumping down a research rabbit hole. Almost all of my reading these days is in ebook form, and I am much more selective and discriminating about adding physical books into the collection - shelf space is at a real premium right now.
Online!
Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for reading has taken a serious hit. I don't find any interest in checking out new writers, and some of the established writers I followed aren't calling to me, either. I don't know if it's due to various distractions in my life, or that I'm getting jaded.
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joekc6nlx wrote:
Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for reading has taken a serious hit. I don't find any interest in checking out new writers, and some of the established writers I followed aren't calling to me, either. I don't know if it's due to various distractions in my life, or that I'm getting jaded.
I am sorry to hear that Joe. I hope your love of reading returns!
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Surtac wrote:
I wish you the best of luck with that, Star. I tried to do something similar when I retired last year: set aside some time each day for regular favourite activities (reading, listening to music, exercise, my own study / research projects etc) but the reality of living in a household that is accurately named Chateau Dysfunction has shown how difficult that can be when I am the individual in the household who is most easily and regularly interrupted - expected to serve as and continually treated as a captive audience of one.
One thing I have found advantageous lately is to move my e-reading from the Kindle app on the PC back to the Kindle device, where I am less likely to distract myself by stopping and digging for a reference or jumping down a research rabbit hole. Almost all of my reading these days is in ebook form, and I am much more selective and discriminating about adding physical books into the collection - shelf space is at a real premium right now.
Thank you ‘tac. I have plans to begin major reading, writing, artistic and study projects as my time frees up. As the kids are no longer in the house, I’m hoping the distractions will be kept to a minimum. As long as I don’t encumber myself with the detritus of the digital world, and the fruitless expenditure of my life’s energy. That and retaining good health! Will certainly report back over the coming years!
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I had a chance to discuss this topic in person with Star and Starlady the other evening. I find I am reading books far less than was my custom. I attribute this to all of the suggestions above, and also to my doomscrolling on Twitter about all the horrible political and war news. I am thirsty for news, and spend many hours a day refreshing the feed. I also have people around often who interrupt me, so I have developed a terrible habit of diving into various games on my iPad in lieu of reading. I think that the twitter addiction and the games addictions are precisely what the tech developers want to inculcate. It makes me feel i have ADHD- When I do read, I am often able to read slowly and focus on all the words as I never did in my youth (when all I was interested in was plot, not language) - at least until my attention gets itchy and I start to miss the constant stimulus of the other content,
But I am also bored with most of the books I’ve had before me lately (Victoria Goddard not included, I love her and read every word). I am drawn to reread works that I remember as extraordinary (Dorothy Dunnett in particular) and otherwise have been finding less well-done works tedious. I wish I could come upon a mother lode of wonderful writing that could draw me in and keep me anchored in reading. I have somewhat dutifully been reading as many of the books you folks have been recommending here as I can find in the library but tbh they aren’t grabbing me.
I don’t mind reading on the iPad, which permits both library borrows and kindle reading. I used to prefer physical books, but I am trying not to buy books so have adapted to electronic reading reasonably well.
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Yeah, that "doomscrolling" is a nasty habit. I've cut my scanning of newsfeeds to a rapid scan of titles only. The only things that catch my attention are movie news, archelogy news and a very light touch of astrology--for the fun of it. Having people interrupt you off of newsfeeds is a good thing: gets you off the depressing bits. Limiting your time on twitter (isn't there a better spot for you than this?) and going back to the old reading habits will help. Re-reading is great! And yeah, our tastes change as our mental state ages.