READING IS THINKING
By Prof Plotznheimer
Good Morning Class.
Today I would like to share a very cool passage from THE END OF FAITH by Sam Harris.
"You are now seated, reading Homo Escapeons.
Reading is itself a species of thinking.
You can probably hear the sound of your own voice reading these words in your mind.
These sentences don't feel like your thoughts.
Your thoughts are the ones that arrive unannounced and steal you away from the text.
They may or may not have any relevance to what you are now reading.
You may suddenly find yourself thinking about something else even while your eyes still blindly scan lines of text.
We all know what it is like to read whole paragraphs, and even pages of a book, without assimilating a word.
Few of us realize that we spend most of our lives in such a state; perceiving the present-sights, sounds, tastes, sensations-only dimly, through a veil of thought.
We spend our lives telling ourselves the story of past and future, while the reality of the present goes largely unexplored."
Well...Did you feel it?
Your consciousness understanding the experience that YOU are simultaneously the subject and the object?
Isn't that cool?It means that you are Salt-Of-The-Earth, and a Politically, Moderate, Centrist, or Lefty, and that the globby, three pound, lump, of folded, grey, jello, holding your ears apart, is still working despite having been bombarded from birth by a lifetime of advertisements from the Military/Industrial Complex controlled Ad Geniuses who are begging you to come over to the Dark Side.
Congratulations.
If on the other hand, you thought that that voice in your head was either GOD or SATAN, you are prolly an Uber-Conservative, Rightwing, Fascist, Nutjob, and destined to continue loathing other people who look, think, or act differently, as well as those who have more expensive crap than you have managed to accumulate at any cost..and besides you already know everything that there is to know so why was I reading this crap?
((ahem))
So Class...what do you think about your ability to think about your thinking while you're reading?..or did your attention span expire?...a little too long for you eh?
Aaah you kids today oye-yoy-yoy!
Thanks Andrea
I think while I read all the time. I tend to read books which are either completely removed from the reality I live in, or are a parody of said reality. So I'm thinking about the differences, similarities, how and why the jokes work, exactly why people didn't travel much until relatively recently, the impact cars have had on our lives and cultures, religion and what it has meant to different people at different times... anyway, I think a lot. While I read. Usually about what I'm reading, and sometimes about why I'm not reading what isn't on the page. Make sense? :)
ReplyDeleteGood reading keeps me engaged. Sometimes, the boring stuff makes me daydream...forgetting about what I'm reading. Thus, the late night cram sessions before a big test.
ReplyDeleteIt's very distracting sometimes when I think about thinking while reading, instead of paying attention to what I'm reading...And sometimes, it's a wonderful trip for the brain that needing a break. Other times, it makes putting together furniture pieces or shelves very difficult.
I think you seldom read good stuff. Otherwise you would have come and read my latest poem. That one about recycling coke cans. But then you never recognised good stuff when you saw one.
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't really need to tell you about my reading. You know about it very well.
What was the question again?
ReplyDeleteThis is why it took me so damn long to get through college, Donn!!
ReplyDeleteI mean, I'll be reading and some annoying little thought will pop into my head and then I have to re-read what I just read....
It's a vicious, life sucking cycle.
One the bright side, I know it's my own inner me talking to me... not God... not the debil.
At least I've got that going for me.
Another cool thing is to silence the thoughts in your head that come not just from others but from your head. I guess meditation doesn't work for everyone, but when it does, it can have effects beyond what you'd have anticipated.
ReplyDeleteI hope I'm not, om... off-topic...
I often think anout what I'm thinking and then think hey I'm thinking about thinking that I must be thinking 3 things at once and realise it was the fourth that realised the third was thinking about the thinking about the thinking . . .
ReplyDeletesorry, what were we talking about?
Back later.
ReplyDeletePhone's ringing.
Where were we?
ReplyDeleteOh crap, I think I have another call coming in.
MJ, is the ringing in your head?
ReplyDeleteI must be the salt of the earth type - I think and read at the same time, usually about totally different things. Aand yes, I can hear my voice in my head reading the words, as if out loud.
It's kinda cool, I think, multi-tasking like that. I can figure out problems or plan things while reading about something else, but it usually has to be fiction or something non-important. If I am studying, say for a test, then I have to really concentrate on the words so that Ii don't go off on tangents and not absorb what I need to read.
That hurt my tiny brain
ReplyDeleteBut, but, I don't read!
ReplyDeleteI read about 3 (different books) a time. Has always been, so much to learn, to roam, to entertain, to ponder, why, right at this very minute reading your blog while reading a forum, and emails, and last 10 yrs median house prices for Victoria. Plus eating toast and drinking coffee, or is that eating coffee, drinking toast, where am I?
ReplyDeletePam
Wow! Love the way your mind works HE. Even when it leaves me in the dust! You can drag your armchair over to my fencepost so we can philosophize together, anytime. The world needs saving, I tell ya, and together (along with any others wanting to chat around that fencepost) we might just pull it off!
ReplyDeleteOr not.
(^_^)
I read three books at once and if the right show is not on the television while i am reading them then it just aint no good AT ALL.
ReplyDeleteof course at the moment i am drinking a bloody mary and eating a hot dog. whaddya gonna do?
I see you have modified the template.. hihihi... the "comments" text ;)
ReplyDeleteUmm.. I was thinking about the template while reading the post. Need to check again =D