The political importance of reading fiction- Page 2

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/15/05 at 11:45pm

Listening to an audio book is absolutely equal to reading it, especially if you listen to it unabridged. Many of the actors who have become regulars in the audio-book studios have turned reading audios into an art form that recalls the golden age of radio.

Interesting to note that of the two recent presidents, Bill Clinton was an inveterate reader, often with three or four books by his bedside.

George Bush, on the other hand, famously said he wasn't "much for reading thick books." Not only that, he told Fox News's Brit Hume that he didn't even bother to read newspapers. He preferred to get his news straight from Condoleezza Rice and Andrew Card.

As for Nancy Reagan's MY TURN, for many years I was the embarrassed owner of an autographed copy, personally inscribed to me by Mrs. Reagan as I bit my tongue from blurting out the Act-Up slogan "History will re-CALL / Reagan and Bush did NOTHING AT ALL!" Which would have been churlish at the moment, to say the least.

Years later, I donated it to an auction to benefits an AIDS organization. It went to the highest bidder...for $12.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 12:56am

I just finished listening to Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, a book I had also read the traditional way when it first came out. The woman who read the audiobook gave a stellar performance and made it come alive in ways that I didn't when reading it to myself. Each character had a distinctive voice and her subtle Southern drawl, an accent which I often find irritating, was in this case melodic and added so much to the experience of the story being told.

Sometimes when reading, I think I get sloppy and skim for plot. For me, listening to a book being read aloud reminds me to slow down and savor the words.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 1:14am

Absolutely the opposite for me, as I said before, it is just not the same, because I can not concentrate as well to the audio book.

I get very invested when actually reading the book for myself. My mind races when trying the audio.

Which is my whole point from before, there is no way to judge it, but reading in any form is certainly preferable to not reading at all.

I can not stand the anti-intellectualism of this President. The way he stands behind his stupidity as a badge of honor disgusts me.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 1:31am

After all, he's the same smug idiot who bragged that he did pretty well for being a "C" student, isn't he...

[bongoboy]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 1:39am

When I first read Jayne Eyre, I truly, freakily (though it seems not so freakish now), felt that Charlotte Bronte was speaking to me. She was wherever I was reading it. I told a brilliant new friend of mine about it at the time and I felt kind of exposed, embarassed. I thought I was having some paranormal experience. I'll never forget it. I've never listened to a book on tape. I must, soon.

[orion59]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 9:54am

I'm the same way. I can't listen to an audio book or listen to someone else read. I find myself unable to focus and I miss out on much of the nuance in the writing. While reading meyself, I can stop for a moment and envision the scenes, the characters and settings.

Listening to non fiction may be different. I haven't tried it.

I do agree that "reading" in any form is important. I've been an avid reader since I was a child and have found that reading exposes me to so many things that I might otherwise have missed. Even reading fluff once in a while can been beneficial. For instance, I actually learned something about the legal profession by reading John Grisham.

My next book ( I always have one or two waiting in the wings to be taken out as soon as I finish the current one) is going to be The Devil's Highway. While listening to This American Life a few weeks ago, I heard a short story by the author. It was about this Mexican town where people are living in make shift shacks built on a garbage dump. The story focused on the fact that, in spite of the devestating poverty, these people mamange to maintain a proud sense of tradition.

I looked up this particular book and found a listed for another book by the author, The Devil's Highway, which is a non fiction account of people who have risked so much to try to get across the border into the US. In both books, this one and the book of short stories, I expect that there will be a lot to learn about the socio-economic structure of Mexico, Mexican/Us relations and the effects of NAFTA on the average Mexican citizen as told from their vantage point. This is something I would have missed out on if I weren't always on the look out for the next interesting book to read or if I weren't always listening to This American Life and jotting down the names of authors and books.

I've never understood the concept that reading is work. I hear so many people say that they just can't read, it's too boring. To em it's always been a way to explore something new, a new way of thinking or an alternate view of something.

As far as all art being political, yes, it is in a sense. Art is supposed to one think, to view something from a vantage point that may be different than you're used to or to make a statement. To me, that is political in the true sense of the word.

By the way, for anyone who may not have read Specimen Days yet, check it out. I read it over the latter part of the summer. It is a beautifully written book and a great example of how fiction makes a very strong political statement. there is so much that can be drawn out of the three stories that comprise this novel. It takes Walt Whitman's Leaves Of Grass and applies it to a number of issues such as terrorism, racism, poverty and classism and at the same time compares the way these things play out in our society from the past, present and future. It's a fantasticly complex book if you look beyond the surface while reading it.

[EvelynNesbit1906]

Posted: 10/16/05 at 11:09pm

I'm another person with an attention span too short for listening to audiobooks regularly. There's usually a 'paragraph' that sticks with me and by the time I finish digesting it, I've missed a couple of 'pages.' My other issues with them are that they're so damn expensive and disappear from stores too quickly.

The four that I'm planning to 'hear' all the way through are still: Kaffir Boy, Ragtime, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Mommie Dearest. (In two of the four cases, I'm drawn to the reader's voice more than anything else.)

Updated On: 10/16/05 at 11:09 PM