tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post749308476808109428..comments2023-10-03T11:41:21.191+01:00Comments on The Truth About Lies: You are what you readJim Murdochhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-78252597847124885242010-10-04T13:46:08.537+01:002010-10-04T13:46:08.537+01:00Agreed, Gwilym, but I think that applies to everyt...Agreed, <b>Gwilym</b>, but I think that applies to everything, we remember images far more easily than we do words, all of us. It’s like the book I’ve just reviewed, <i><a href="http://jim-murdoch.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-girl-who-was-too-fond-of-matches.html" rel="nofollow">The Little Girl who was too Fond of Matches</a></i>, the language is fascinating, completely unique, but I can’t remember any bits of dialogue off the top of my head. What I <i>can</i> remember – and quite vividly at that – is the story in pictures which is unusual for me because I tend to avoid descriptions in my own writing. <br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-73087866044357068822010-10-04T07:55:56.911+01:002010-10-04T07:55:56.911+01:00For me the reading of fiction takes place on two l...For me the reading of fiction takes place on two levels simultaenously - there's the pure joy of well written words, I love to see words used in novel and unusual ways (for example) - and there's the unfolding story which appears, if I'm enjoying the book, as a sort of film running along in my head. I can't always remember what or where I've read up to exactly, but when I pick up the book and commence to read from where I left off, even after a couple of weeks, the story-so-far comes back to me after I've read three or four lines. There are books, as Art Durkee points out, that stay and don't stick in the memory. For me those that stick in the memory are those where image is strong - Coetzee's 'The Heart of the Country', Hesse's 'Narcissus and Goldmund', Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'. <br />Congratulations on another memorable and thought-provoking piece, Jim!Gwil Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03305768121713053837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-31128667923744534702010-10-03T10:11:15.351+01:002010-10-03T10:11:15.351+01:00I’m glad you’re enjoying the collection, Koe. Yes,...I’m glad you’re enjoying the collection, <b>Koe</b>. Yes, I was quite bowled over by <i>Knots</i> when I first read it. I’m afraid even in Scotland Laing’s not so well known any more. The book’s yours to read any way you like but you should try sitting and reading it once at least from beginning through to the end. It’s always bothered me that you can’t read a book of poetry like a novel but by arranging the poems moving from childhood to old age I’ve hoped to achieve that here. <br /><br />As for discussing what I’m reading with Carrie, I use her as a sounding board most of the time before I sit down and write my reviews. It helps to get my thoughts in focus. Often I explain far more than ends up in the review especially if I think there’s no chance that she’ll read the book so she never reads the reviews fresh but that’s okay because she’s really only proofreading them anyway.<br /><br />And, <b>Dave</b>, yes, good point. I find that with films. You really need to watch most films more than once to appreciate them. Even some TV shows. It’s amazing how much we miss the first time round. <br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-11610324219002787902010-10-03T09:48:41.934+01:002010-10-03T09:48:41.934+01:00Fascinating post. Most of it applies, I would gues...Fascinating post. Most of it applies, I would guess, to all language activity. I.e. to speech also. Indeed, to most perceptual activities. Much depends on <b>why</b> you are reading the text, listening to the lecture, watching the film etc. I think I have blogged somewhere about the video of a chameleon we were asked to watch back in my student days. It was absorbing to see it change colour as it went after its prey and the way the tongue flew out an incredible distance to catch the fly. Then we were asked to describe how it moved. No one had watched that. We saw it through again and obtained a completely different overall impression of the creature.Dave Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08430484174826768488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-84611399850619841182010-10-02T21:13:09.134+01:002010-10-02T21:13:09.134+01:00Jim - this is wonderful. It's a real standout...Jim - this is wonderful. It's a real standout even among all the great essays you've done. <br /><br />Starting with the tangents. . . my first experience with Knots was a recording of it by the band Gentle Giant - I was not so well read as a young man but my ears did get around some. I had wondered who RDL was in your book - and now I know. I was reading your collection just again this morning. I tend to do that with poetry books - I always read the first poem first. It has to be what the poet intended = but then I read the rest of the poems randomly over the course of time. Today's read was fantastic. There are so many wonderful works in there. <br /><br />I loved that you talk about what you're reading with your wife. . . what a nice, nice thing to do. I may be wrong, but I think it shows.<br /><br />And the hidden error in 1 + 1 = 0 is a wonderful bit of illusion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-15309482198426528372010-10-02T12:46:24.768+01:002010-10-02T12:46:24.768+01:00I loved Knots when I first read it, Dick in fact m...I loved <i>Knots</i> when I first read it, <b>Dick</b> in fact my poem ‘Cathexis (in memoriam RDL)’ – page 35 of <i>This Is Not About What You Think</i> – is in Laing’s memory. <br /><br />When my father retired he said one of his biggest regrets was the fact that he had lost his sight – glaucoma, and his sight was quite far gone before it was caught – and so he wasn’t able to do what he never had time to do when he was working, sit and read. We tried to get him to get into audio books but the kind of books he was interested in – non-fiction mainly – aren’t the kind they make audio books of. Make the most of your time.<br /><br />Glad you found the post stimulating.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-36330252571396437742010-10-02T08:29:54.433+01:002010-10-02T08:29:54.433+01:00You've excelled yourself with this one, Jim. A...You've excelled yourself with this one, Jim. A distinct Strike One against those who claim that electronic discourse tends to debase language and communication. This meditation draws the worlds of treeware and on-screen reading together and does it for those of for whom each territory serves the other.<br /><br />I love the Laing-ian Man/Woman dialogue. Straight out of the massively neglected 'Knots' (which, alongside R.D. Laing's more contentious works, has gone down the plughole as baby with bathwater).<br /><br />Now that I've finished with teaching and the constant extrinsically-based reading I had to do for the job, by and large, I read for complete absorption into narrative and character. So I move from one carefully selected novel or biography to another with never a break between each book. <br /><br />This is an active process: for me the 'getting of wisdom' is best managed through an experience of the lives and times of others and I will select a book on the basis of what data I have in place already. So in that sense the approach is cognitive in that I'm reading the propositions of the novel off against what I think I know already. <br /><br />However, since I'm seeking constantly to challenge my suppositions and push the boundaries, there is a metacognitive element in play as well and a good read will involve me in extensive extrapolation beyond the narrative.<br /><br />Thanks once again for the stimulus, Jim!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-83727765472390144122010-10-01T10:50:22.107+01:002010-10-01T10:50:22.107+01:00I’ve never been drawn to non-fiction, Art. I have ...I’ve never been drawn to non-fiction, <b>Art</b>. I have textbooks, of course, but I don’t sit and read them cover to cover. I research whatever is of interest to me at the time and leave the rest for later for never, whatever comes first. I have the same problems with these though. When I’m working on an article I can keep the stuff in my head but even a few days later it all starts to slip away. I wrote this article a couple of months ago and when I went to post it I found could remember next to nothing about it. I’m sure if I sat down to work on a similar article now it would start to come back to me or at least it would ring bells when I read stuff I’d read before. My gut feeling is that it’s just the pure onslaught of information. It never ends. We gobble, swallow but never give ourselves time to digest things properly before something else appears on our plates going, “Eat me! Eat me now before I get cold.”<br /><br />And, <b>Scattercat</b>, yep, been there, one lesson ahead of the class. At least I was dealing with adults. They were just glad to have a guy there who was willing to teach them. When I was about thirteen we did have a student teacher for a day, a guy who looked like Ginsberg and tried to introduce us to Ferlinghetti. We ended up giving him the silent treatment and just watched him squirm something our regular teacher would never have let us get away with. It takes a brave person to be a secondary school teacher.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-41396944823698468752010-10-01T07:27:52.730+01:002010-10-01T07:27:52.730+01:00Ahahahaha, welcome to my curriculum for the years ...Ahahahaha, welcome to my curriculum for the years I was a teacher. (Reading and Language Arts.)<br /><br />'S fun stuff, innit? It gets less fun when you spend a year trying to trick 13-year-olds into understanding it.Scattercathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00302815654553659644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6327348657265652781.post-24877751850919896862010-09-30T16:50:40.877+01:002010-09-30T16:50:40.877+01:00The fact that most fiction doesn't stick in th...The fact that most fiction doesn't stick in the memory may have to do with memory, but it also has to do with the memorability and quality of what's been read. I find in fact that books I read that really pulled me in I can remember quite well. For example, I just watched the movie "Mistress of Spices" on TV, and I remembered reading the book several years ago that it was based on. <br /><br />Granted, I'm not doing a lot of reading for the purposes of reviewing; I tend to write reviews of things I read because I wanted to read them, and share my appreciation for them.<br /><br />So I have to say, reviews or no, one reason a lot of fiction doesn't stick me with me very long these days is that it's not very good. It generates no desire to re-read it later, either. Which for me, at least, is a test of its quality.<br /><br />But then I don't read many new novels anymore. Creative non-fiction is more attractive to me. And I read a lot of poetry. (The same criteria are in play about whether I want to re-read it later.)Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.com