“Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms. We are free to indulge our subjective associative impulse; the term I coin for this is deep reading: the slow and meditative possession of a book. We don't just read the words, we dream our lives in their vicinity. The printed page becomes a kind of wrought-iron fence we crawl through, returning, once we have wandered, to the very place we started.” NeedsKindBookDreamReadingTermOur LivesPagesPossessionRhythmImpulseIronFenceCoinsSubjectiveIndulgePrintedAdaptableVicinity Book:The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age Source: The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age
“Poetry springs directly from our primal need and capacity for communication[Poetry] mobilizes such a concentration of devices, such an intensification of language via rhythm, syntax, image and metaphor. Reading it-the best of it-can create another, very different kind of perpetual present, an awareness that can be as ongoing in the soul as the stop-time of trauma.” NeedsKindDifferentSoulReadingLanguageAwarenessCommunicationSpringCapacityMetaphorTraumaRhythmConcentrationDevicesDifferent KindsPerpetualOngoingPrimalSyntaxStop Time Author:Sven Birkerts
