How does one read a novel? Answer: many ways.
This is a brief exploration of an approach that I have been playing with over the last year. I call it slow reading, since it often takes about 4 to 10 times as long to read a book using this approach.
However the goal is not, clearly, to simply get to the last word. What is the point of that? Why bother to read all of the words between the first and the last?
If that is not the goal, then what is? Answer: to play with ideas engendered by the reading.
Some of these ideas are related to understanding. What is the novel about? Does it make sense?
Other ideas are related to interpretation and significance. Why did the author write this story?
Further ideas are related to personal reflection. Do I see similar themes in my own life?
There is also the potential for generative ideas. As a result of reading a particular passage, do I begin to dream about other issues and thoughts, only distantly related to the book?
How can one facilitate and encourage such a variety of consequences? Answer: not by insisting on one mechanistic approach.
If I do not want to suggest an approach, then what am I suggesting? Answer: a playful, relaxed attitude to reading, one that allows the mind to wander beyond the confines of analysis and rational thought.
Here are three examples of a particular approach that I have used recently. The basic idea is to create a web site while reading. The particular structure of the web site is determined by the reader while interacting with the book. It is not solely determined by the book, not by the reader, but by a symbiotic relationship between the two.
My first example is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author William
Gibson, "All Tomorrow's Parties".
My second example is "Soul Mountain by the Nobel prize winner, Gao Xingjian,
from China.
My third example, which is still at an early stage, is Marcel Proust's seven
volume epic "In Search of Lost Time".
Let me begin with a brief comment about web authoring. In order for this approach
to have any validity at all, it is critical that the actual effort of creating
the web site should be invisible, or at least barely visible. That is, one's
attention should be on the message and not on the medium. This particular paper
is being composed on a word processor. I am almost unaware of that fact, since
I am so accustomed to typing and saving files. I am only using the most rudimentary
of the options available to me, and I can focus on trying to express myself.
Similar comments apply to web authoring. The software I use is sufficiently
familiar to me, and sufficiently easy to use, that I can focus on what I am
trying to say. This is a relatively new state of affairs, both for the state
of the art of web authoring software as well as for myself.
The body of this paper lies elsewhere. That is, it consists of the content embodied in the three web sites that were created while reading the three novels alluded to previously.
http://home.uleth.ca/~dale.burnett/Fiction/Novels/AllTomorrowsParties/ [HREF2]
http://home.uleth.ca/~dale.burnett/Fiction/Novels/SoulMountain/ [HREF3]
http://home.uleth.ca/~dale.burnett/Fiction/Novels/InSearchofLostTime/ [HREF4]
I only want to highlight one feature of these three web sites: they are all structurally, and substantively, quite different. If someone else were to attempt the same books with the same approach, I would assume that the result would be different again. Although I am worried that by merely viewing my samples, they may have the effect of subtly directing one toward a similar pattern. Being optimistic, three examples should not exhaust the possibilities, and there should still be freedom for others to genuinely create their own versions.
All three web sites have embedded within them a sequential pattern of the chapters. I do not view this as essential, but for me, it is a natural component. Thus when I finish reading a chapter, or sometimes a few chapters, then I move to the computer and prepare some notes about what I have read.
Yet the content of my notes is quite different for these three novels. In the
case of Gibson's novel, the chapters themselves are quite short and one of the
tasks facing the reader is to keep track of what is happening. Thus the web
site is basically one that provides links between the chapters for each of the
main characters in the story. This allows me to easily go back and recall what
a particular person was doing earlier in the story.
There are four "sections" for the web page for each chapter. The first section contains a sentence that describes the setting. The second section contains a list of all the characters that appear in the chapter, together with links (B – back; F – forward)) to the previous and next chapters where that person appears. The third section describes the action and the last section provides me with an opportunity to make some personal comments if I wish.
Gao Xingjian provides the exact opposite. It is not clear that there is much of a sequence to the chapters, they are more like independent vignettes, although there is a theme of a relationship between two people for much of the novel. Instead this book is much more self-reflective and philosophical, leading me to pay particular note of superbly crafted passages.
While using the same basic style, the emphasis on each page is a combination of more personal descriptions of the setting within which I am reading, much more like a diary, plus a noting of some particularly striking passages and my reaction to them.
Finally, the Proust series of novels is sufficiently rich in both text and
in terms of the underlying psychology that I am tempted to read this very carefully
and to make much more detailed notes. Given that few people seem to actually
complete this series, and that it also seems that finishing it becomes the goal
– much like being able to say that you have completed Tolstoy's War and
Peace, then the idea of reading even more slowly would seem to be a questionable
strategy. Yet if the argument of this paper has any value, then it may be that
this is the only way to complete the reading, by making the result intrinsically
one's own – in this case by having a personal journal of the experience.
Parenthetically, as should be obvious, the creation of such web sites should
be for the author's own eyes and mind. Most of the points that have been written
about the privacy of diaries and journals apply here as well. Making it public
is the author's decision, and in my case it is an after thought. Having created
these sites, it then occurred to me that there may some merit in sharing the
experience with others. In general I do not view the content as being of much
interest to others, however the process may generate some additional activity
for some who chance to see this paper.
I would like to think that teachers of literature might find this paper of some interest. I also think that the underlying idea of web site construction to have some merit in other forms of reading such as non-fiction books, or of poetry.
http://home.uleth.ca/~dale.burnett/Learning Index/history/beauty/ [HREF5]
http://home.uleth.ca/~dale.burnett/Fiction/Poetry/poetry1/ [HREF6]