Chartier
I enjoyed reading Chartier's The Practical Impact of Writing because it dealt a lot with the social aspect of reading and how writing influenced people. The first couple pages were a lot of figures to absorb, and I found myself scanning over the numbers. He illustrated a good point about writing and reading somewhere in all of those figures though, something I guess I never really thought of before - that someone can write something and not necessarily be able to read and vice versa - that someone who knows how to read does not necessarily know how to write. This was quite a shocker to me, I thought the two came hand in hand! It's hard to remember back to kindergarten and first grade, but I guess the two subjects were taught as two distinct things, but it's hard for me, personally, to seperate the two. In school, we are asked to write about what we read a lot, and I guess this has really affected my perception of the two subjects - its hard for me to seperate them, but when I really think about it, I guess I could get through life (in the 1500s-1800s) without knowing both.
Unequal Skills
I also liked how Chartier brought up differences between the sexes when it came to writing. As readers of the classics, the canon, whatever you wanna call it, this difference has been brought up, realized, and has become knowledge. As Chartier states, "writing was held to be a useless and dangerous skill for women to acquire." Dangerous!?!?! Men were probably afraid we'd expose their true nature... but I digress. Within this section, he doesn't only focus on men/women differences, but recognizes social rank and geographic location as well. Those who were higher up on the social scale had more access to literature than those who ranked lower and those living in cities were also more likely to be able to read and to write.
Family Reading & Reading Out Loud
When I was younger, I used to go to my grandparents' house once a week. They are lucky enough to posess a library in their house filled with all sorts of books. They really like poetry. Anyway, at least once every time I visited, either my brother or I would have to read something out loud to everyone. He really hated it; I kinda liked reading out loud. We also read privately while in each others company in the library. I really think these experiences contributed to my love of books and reading, for had it not been for my grandparents, I don't think I would have cultivated this taste for literature. Well, now my grandparents are both around 90 years old, and every night they still read to each other, mostly poetry, but I think they read novels aloud to each other as well. Reading out loud serves many purposes, but for us it was a way to just spend time together. We didn't always discuss the reading afterwards, but what mattered more was that we all were together. With the advent of television, and now the ultra-individualized computer culture, many lose these moments of pleasure shared with family. Sure, we share stuff on the web, but nothing compares with a quiet room ringing with one person's voice as the others are circled around, enraptured with what the person is reading.
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I must admit that I only got through maybe the first page of Chartier's "The Practical Impact of Writing." I just lost interest. But, commenting on your thoughts of the reading, I'm actually not surprised by the idea of someone being able to read but not write. In a literal sense I don't think that is true, but in an intellectual sense it is possible. I've witnessed several cases of someone incapable of writing a comprehensible paragraph, but can read. I do agree that reading and writing go hand in hand, but I also believe that one is learned much easier than the other...maybe because I'm thinking so much of my own little dilemma.
ReplyDeleteAnywho, I actually think that everyone should read aloud. I personally enjoy reading silently because, as many others would reason, I can better comprehend what is being read. Thus, reading aloud formulates a challenge. It is awesome to have an in-house library and have family reading times. If only that educational activity was practiced in my household growing up, I wouldn't be coaching myself now to correctly pronounce words by reading aloud. (lol)
One reason I was not surprised to think that someone could read but not write, or vice versa, is my three-year-old daughter. It is easy for me to imagine the consequences of teaching her to read but never, ever letting her write. Since she is allowed to have a pen, pencil, marker, crayon, or lipstick if she's feeling like trouble, I see how writing is simply not an easy task. It doesn't come naturally to just mimic the shapes of the letters that she sees. It is somewhat like art in that it's a skill that is developed. That's just to get the letters right! Throw in having to know which letters to use, and you've got a real tough challenge even for the sponge that is my daughter.
ReplyDeleteIn a few weeks we will come back to the difference between reading and writing, which (as hinted at in Chartier) was a gender difference as well.
ReplyDeleteI had never though to distinguish between the ability to read and the ability to write. Much like yourself, I have always considered reading and writing two faces of the same coin. Although After reading Ketih's comment, it is easier for me to realize how one can have the ability to read and not write, I am not quite able to understand how one can write- essentially something for someone else to read- but personally not know how to read.
ReplyDeleteHowever, as far as reading aloud - or worse, being read to- it is not something that I have ever cared for. Of course, I take exception to the stories that loved ones read to me when I was a child and the ones I read now to the little girls I babysit. However, even as a child, as soon as I was able to read, I took great pride in being able to read a story to myself and not need the help of a parent. I guess this is something that has carried over into adulthood because the idea of audiobooks make me cringe and I have a much more difficult time actually paying attention and retaining information if it is being read aloud to me, as opposed to me just picking up the book and reading it to myself.
To distinguish reading and writing has been a mere thought of mine for some time now. To read his article as well as the other ideas I came across while researching, is beyond me. I never saw it relevant to gender differences though. Were you seriously shocked to see that he would identify writing as a "useless and dangerous skill for women?" I mean naturally I was appalled but not necessarily shocked because women were always categorized as the ones who were beneath men. 'Women can't do this and we can't do that.' Cut the crap!
ReplyDeleteAnywho, I wish that I could have shared a tradition as such with my grandparents, parents, siblings, or whomever...I think that's great.
As always, great blog.