These are conscious decisions made by a writer who is trying to say something not through content, but through form. James Joyce didn’t have to write in a difficult-to-follow stream-of-conciousness, nor did he have to write so densely or verbosely. There is reason that Ulysses is as confusing as it is. By throwing words at a reader at a set speed (for example, 500 words per minute), the reader misses out on the writer’s intended reading experience. Spritz, however, ignores writer-induced pace changes. Whether his/her work is fiction or nonfiction, a writer has the ability to at least partially dictate how a reader reads. There are, in fact, times when a writer might want to speed up or slow down the reader this can be done by choosing particular words, or by changing the amount of white space on the page, or by altering the page’s layout/format (see House of Leaves for an example of this one), or by a million other ways. It assumes that a reader should strive to read as much as possible, as quickly as possible, rather than to savour the words they read, and to make them last. My issue with Spritz is that the company assumes that it is always good to read a book quickly. While I don’t use an e-reader or tablet because I am stuck in the past and am not willing to give up the romantic feeling of holding a book or the joy of smelling a book’s pages when no one is watching, I have nothing against those who choose to read a text digitally. I don’t mind e-readers or tablets that allow readers to carry their libraries with them no matter where they go I actually find these technologies quite practical, especially for people who commute or travel regularly. My issue with Spritz is not that it replaces physical books. That place, though, is not in literature. So I don’t mean to say that speed-reading does not have a place in our society. Often, when I am a reading a textbook, I wish that I was a faster reader so that I could end the torture sooner. Sometimes, you just need to get through a book. Really, though, it wasn’t until 1878, when ophthalmologist Louis Émile Javal proved that the eyes didn’t actually stop on every letter while reading, that people started getting really excited about speed-reading.īefore I go any further, I want to stress that I am not anti-speed-reading. The first formal speed-reading course was taught at Syracuse University in 1925, but fast readers have been around as long as there has been stuff to read. In all seriousness, though, I do have some concerns about this app. Who needs formal education when you have Spritz? Just kidding. You can pack a lot more information into your brain a lot quicker. Because, you know, “the time consuming part of reading lies mainly in the actual eye movement from word to word and sentence to sentence.” Cool, right? You’ll be able to tell people that you actually read Ulysses, without having to spend a stupid amount of time actually reading it. The company even advertises that you could read an entire novel in less than 90 minutes using this technology. Spritz (and, inevitably, Spritz knock-offs) could completely change – I refuse to use the word “revolutionize” – the way we read.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |