Listening is the new reading

[Larla]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I normally don't do audio books but I discovered Atlas Shrugged is much easier in audio form.

Do you mean a 20+ page soliloquy by John Galt is easier to get through by listening?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Larla

Do you mean a 20+ page soliloquy by John Galt is easier to get through by listening?

I haven't got that far yet.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by Larla

Do you mean a 20+ page soliloquy by John Galt is easier to get through by listening?

I couldn't recollect my guts to read this book after having seen this remark by Dorothy Parker referring to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged - "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.".

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by drjd

I couldn't recollect my guts to read this book after having seen this remark by Dorothy Parker referring to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged - "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.".

You would break whatever it hit.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by issybird

I disagree. You had seemed to suggest that the author's interpretation somehow has some validity. AFAIC, the text is neutral from any author's narration; it was the author's responsibility to express his meaning in the words alone. Narration matters. Heck, we all have narrators we like and those we loathe, which says in itself that the process of narration changes things.



Sure I can! It's the author getting between his written words and the reader (i.e., listener).

I agree with issybird. When I read some text I create my own emphasis on the words on the page, but depending on how someone reads something aloud you can change meaning. Take the phrase "drop dead!" for example. It can be interpreted to tell the other person to die, or to express disbelief about something or depending on context, inflection, tone of voice, etc can convey that you are kidding with the other person. Of course in face to face conversation you also throw in body language. We can't see the narrator move about in an audio book, but depending on how they choose to 'read' the text you could get a different meaning than what the author meant the dialogue to have.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Except for the inherent speed difference. Spoken word is so much slower, that I require another mostly-mindless activity (driving long distances on the highway) to avoid mental wandering. Which DOES affect comprehension!



You don't *have* to visualize it in your head. I rarely do. That requires slowing down and forming a mental image. Until a detail about the setting *matters* (to the story), I don't stop to visualize it at all. Nor do I have anything but a vague blob image of the characters. I don't care what they look like, only what happens next.

I think that you mean that you don't stop to think about what you visualize myself. Part of comprehension is unconscious visualization of what is being discussed. If someone tells you they had a flat tire on the highway you may not picture them trying to change it with other cars speeding by but you feel empathy for them because you can put yourself in their place (i.e. visualize it) all the same. Likewise we don't consciously think about taking a step when we walk but on an unconscious level we probably do. Babies who are just learning how to walk almost certainly do. So our brains are hard wired to associate things and we are very visual beings (unless we are blind) so at least on an unconscious level we visualize. Author's use that habit all the time to set the stage. They make a remark about a greasy spoon off the highway for example and we picture the worn tile floor, the smell of grease from the kitchen, the tired looking waitress, etc. even before the author mentions any of them.

[Larla]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I haven't got that far yet.

Sorry about that -- but at least you have something to look forward to.

I have read this book three times at least so I won't be tossing it aside lightly or with force.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by crich70

I agree with issybird. When I read some text I create my own emphasis on the words on the page, but depending on how someone reads something aloud you can change meaning. Take the phrase "drop dead!" for example. It can be interpreted to tell the other person to die, or to express disbelief about something or depending on context, inflection, tone of voice, etc can convey that you are kidding with the other person. Of course in face to face conversation you also throw in body language. We can't see the narrator move about in an audio book, but depending on how they choose to 'read' the text you could get a different meaning than what the author meant the dialogue to have.

The context tells you more about the meaning than any slight inflection or emphasis in a narrator's voice.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by crich70

Part of comprehension is unconscious visualization of what is being discussed.

I don't believe that's true at all. Certainly not for everyone, anyway.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Catlady

The context tells you more about the meaning than any slight inflection or emphasis in a narrator's voice.

True but how someone says something can add or detract from it at least a bit.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I don't believe that's true at all. Certainly not for everyone, anyway.

Well I will grant that I can't pop in and read your thoughts as you read. I'm just working off of my own experience. I mean if someone says to me "hand me the red book on the top shelf" I know what the words 'red' 'book' top shelf' mean. I have experience with the world so that I know that red is a particular color, and I know what both a book and a shelf is so that I don't hand them a can of soda from the fridge. I don't have to consciously think about it, I just hand them the red book from the top shelf. Likewise with descriptions in a book. I know what the thing described looks like or (in the case of things that don't exist in the real world) what similar things look like. So I visualize it in my head as I read.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by crich70

I know what the thing described looks like or (in the case of things that don't exist in the real world) what similar things look like. So I visualize it in my head as I read.

I don't visualize much at all when I read. That's probably why I tend to get annoyed when an author spends much time at all on descriptions of people/places/clothes/architecture, etc...

Plot, character development/interaction, cleverly turned phrases, and/or witty dialogue are the things that I value most when reading. Very little visualization necessary to enjoy those things.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I don't visualize much at all when I read. That's probably why I tend to get annoyed when an author spends much time at all on descriptions of people/places/clothes/architecture, etc...

Plot, character development/interaction, cleverly turned phrases, and/or witty dialogue are the things that I value most when reading. Very little visualization necessary to enjoy those things.

I don't visualize either. I'm word oriented, not picture oriented. I don't especially mind when an author is heavy on description, but it's mostly just pretty words to me. Of course it's different if an author is describing something I'm familiar with, like a location I know well.

[sun surfer]

It's interesting to read differences in visualisation as, since I hadn't thought about it much before, I suppose I always assumed everyone visualised similarly when reading. I'm somewhere in the middle- I can visualise the story or aspects of it, but it's often hazy and it comes and goes in splotches as I read. It also depends how absorbing the book is. The more absorbed I am, the more (and more consistently, and more vividly) I tend to visualise while reading. Generally though, it's not that vivid or consistent unless the book is really fantastic. I definitely visualised more when I was younger however, and I'm not sure if that's because I read more absorbing books then or because the ability has weakened as I've become older.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by crich70

Well I will grant that I can't pop in and read your thoughts as you read. I'm just working off of my own experience. I mean if someone says to me "hand me the red book on the top shelf" I know what the words 'red' 'book' top shelf' mean. I have experience with the world so that I know that red is a particular color, and I know what both a book and a shelf is so that I don't hand them a can of soda from the fridge. I don't have to consciously think about it, I just hand them the red book from the top shelf. Likewise with descriptions in a book. I know what the thing described looks like or (in the case of things that don't exist in the real world) what similar things look like. So I visualize it in my head as I read.

I can see but not visualize so that's certainly not how it works with me. Without looking my impression of a paper book is the feel of fingers around binding and paper, a shelf is a location in space and I can't bring to mind what red is but I know it when I see it.

Life is weird, people are weird, there's a limit to how much you can say about another's experience based on your own.