How much do you read? Are you a speed reader? I do read fast when it’s necessary, when I have to consume a lot of information or when I have to glean pertinent info and avoid the extraneous.
But what about reading fiction? Sometimes an author may spend hours or days composing one sentence, not just to convey information but to evoke a feeling, to present a sound to the ears between your ears as you read to yourself.
I read novels as if I’m listening to the author, narrator and characters as they sit in my living room on the couch across from me telling me their story, slowing the pace for emphasis, speaking louder and faster when excited. You know what I mean? Like a good audiobook reader.
Imagine skimming through this passage, speed reading to get to the next paragraph. In the novel, Great Expectations, Estella has told Pip that she is going to marry Drummle, “a stupid brute”:
“Nonsense,” she returned, “nonsense. This will pass in no time.”
“Never, Estella!”
“You will get me out of your thoughts in a week.”
“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen since—on the river, on the sails of the ships, on the marshes, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the woods, in the sea, in the streets. You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become acquainted with. The stones of which the strongest London buildings are made, are not more real, or more impossible to be displaced by your hands, than your presence and influence have been to me, there and everywhere, and will be. Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil.”
Speed reading that passage would be like listening to Barber’s Adagio for Strings at 2X speed so you can take it all in as quickly as possible. What a loss! So, I think we get the same result when we hurry through prose that is created with beauty and emotion in mind, not information only.
Take your time. Listen to the voices. Taste the words.