Read . . . or Listen?
When
people select books on CD, they usually are planning for a long car trip,
or they have a vision impairment, or they are trying to learn a language and
want to hear it spoken well. Otherwise,
stories heard instead of read are something of a novelty, I think.
How
things change! Once upon a time, long before Gutenberg and his printing
press, even handwriting was seen as novelty at best . . . or at worst, a
betrayal of the time-tested traditions of oral delivery by specialist singers of tales or by family members at a fireside. Here is Mary Renault’s Simonides, famed
ancient performer of oral poetry:
"Bacchylides!" I said. "What are you writing there?" He jumped nearly out of his skin. He could not have looked more guilty if he had been caught robbing my money-chest.
And so he should, I thought. I could hardly believe what I'd heard and seen. I took a deep breath, to prepare my words. How could he ever become a bard, if he rotted his memory with writing, instead of printing his songs inside his skull?
So
there might be other reasons for considering audio versions of books – either
CDs or electronic. Some find it to be a very different experience. Try an experiment: see if a print book you know well will be
different if you listen to it read to you instead. The sound of the reader’s voice, the vocal
interpretation change the immediate experience. But there is also evidence (listen
to an Aug. 16 CBC program) that memory functions differently when there are
simultaneous stimuli – the sound of the reading, perhaps your movement as you listen? There are details that may
stand out, images that surface, related memories that may be evoked. See for yourself how memory and narrative
interact.
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