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Comment by Momogun 詩男 on July 16, 2021 at 10:00pm

奧登《散步》

當我要散佈一件醜聞，
或者向路另一頭的某人
歸還工具，出借書籍，
我選擇此路，從這裡走到那裡。
之後返回，即使
與來時的腳印相遇，
那路看上去卻全然若新
我打算做的現在已經做成。
但我避開它，當我作為
一個散步者散步只為散步；
其中所涉及的重複
提出了它自身不可解答的疑處。
什麼樣的天使或惡魔
命令我恰好停止在那一刻？
假如再向前走一公里
又會發生什麼？
不，當靈魂里的騷動
或者積雨雲約請一次漫步，
我挑選的路線轉彎抹角
在它出發的地方結束。
這蜿蜒足跡，帶我回家，
我不必向後轉，
也不必回答
究竟要走多遠，
卻讓行為成為規範，
以滿足某種道德需求，
因為，當我重返家門
我早已經把羅盤裝進盒子。
心，害怕離開她的外殼。
一如在我的私人住宅
和隨便哪條公共道路之間
都要求有一百碼的距離，
當它也被增加，就使得
直線成“T”，圓形為“Q”。
讓我無論晴天雨天
都稱這兩樣散步全然屬已。
一條無人旅經的鄉間小徑，
那裡的印痕並不合我的鞋，
它十分像我所愛的人留下，
而且，在尋找著我。


作者簡介

奧登，1907年生於約克郡。1922年開始寫詩。1925年入牛津大學攻讀文學。30年代他以第一部《詩集》成為英國新詩的代表；被稱為“奧登派”或“奧登一代”的詩人，又是英國左翼青年作家的領袖。1936年出版代表作詩集《看吧，陌生人》。1937年赴馬德里支援西班牙人民反法西斯鬥爭，發表長詩《西班牙》。次年訪問中國。與衣修午德合著《戰地行》。1946年加入美國籍。後期作品帶有濃重的宗教色彩，主要詩作有《阿喀琉斯之盾》、《向克萊奧女神致敬》、《在屋內》、《無牆的城市》。奧登被認為是繼葉芝和艾略特之後英國的重要詩人。晚年常在紐約和奧地利鄉居。1953年獲博林根詩歌獎，1967年獲全國文學勳章。 1973年9月29日病逝於維也納。

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 21, 2021 at 11:52pm

Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

Midnight on the Great Western

In the third-class sat the journeying boy,

And the roof-lamp’s oily flame

Played down on his listless form and face,

Bewrapt past knowing to what he was going,

Or whence he came.

In the band of his hat the journeying boy

Had a ticket stuck; and a string

Around his neck bore the key of his box,

That twinkled gleams of the lamp’s sad beams

Like a living thing.

What past can be yours, O journeying boy,

Towards a world unknown,

Who calmly, as if incurious quite

On all at stake, can undertake

This plunge alone?

Knows your soul a sphere, O journeying boy,

Our rude realms far above,

Whence with spacious vision you mark and mete

This region of sin that you find you in

But are not of?

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 19, 2021 at 3:50pm

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

FREEDOM 

Give me the long, straight road before me, 

A clear, cold day with a nipping air, 

Tall, bare trees to run on beside me, 

A heart that is light and free from care. 

Then let me go! – I care not whither 

My feet may lead, for my spirit shall be 

Free as the brook that flows to the river, 

Free as the river that flows to the sea. 

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 5, 2021 at 6:43pm

Wikipedia： Slow reading

Slow reading is the intentional reduction in the speed of reading, carried out to increase comprehension or pleasure· The concept appears to have originated in the study of philosophy and literature as a technique to more fully comprehend and appreciate a complex text· More recently, there has been increased interest in slow reading as result of the slow movement and its focus on decelerating the pace of modern life·

The use of slow reading in literary criticism is sometimes referred to as close reading· Of less common usage is the term, "deep reading"· Slow reading is contrasted with speed reading which involves techniques to increase the rate of reading without adversely affecting comprehension, and contrasted with skimming which employs visual page cues to increase reading speed· 

                                                                                                      （Source：rawpixel）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 4, 2021 at 10:33pm

Philosophy and literature

The earliest reference to slow reading appears to be in Nietzsche's preface to the 1887 Daybreak: "It is not for nothing that one has been a philologist, perhaps one is a philologist still, that is to say, a teacher of slow reading·"

Birkerts, in his book The Gutenberg Elegies, stated "Reading, because we control it, is adaptable to our needs and rhythms· We are free to indulge our subjective associative impulse； the term I coin for this is deep reading: the slow and meditative possession of a book·"

Birkerts' emphasis on the importance of personal control over the speed of reading is echoed by Pullman, who additionally argued that taking control of the pace of one's reading is a form of personal freedom, and develops an appreciation of democracy·

A similar view was stated by Postman, who noted the character of the ordinary citizen of the 19th century, a mind that could listen for hours on end to political orations clearly shaped by a culture favouring text· Postman warns that reading books is important for developing rational thinking and political astuteness·

Lindsay Waters, Executive Editor for the Humanities at Harvard University Press, declared a worldwide reading crisis resulting from our global push toward productivity·

He asserts that young children are learning to read faster, skipping phonetics and diagramming sentences, and concludes that these children will not grow up to read Milton·

He foresees the end of graduate English literature programs· "There is something similar between a reading method that focuses primarily on the bottom-line meaning of a story in a novel and the economic emphasis on the bottom line that makes automobile manufacturers speed up assembly lines·"

He advised re-introducing time into reading: "The mighty imperative is to speed everything up, but there might be some advantage in slowing things down· People are trying slow eating· Why not slow reading?"

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 4, 2021 at 6:46pm

Slow Movement

Carl Honoré, an advocate of the slow movement, discusses slow reading in his book In Praise of Slow· He recommends slow reading as one of several practices to decelerate from the fast pace of modern life· Laura Casey points out that the increasing availability of instant communication technologies, such as texting and social media like Facebook and Twitter, may be contributing to the decline of slow reading·

In 2008, novelist I· Alexander Olchowski founded the Slow Book Movement to advocate for reading practices related to the slow movement, including reading light material at a relaxed pace for pleasure, reading complex materials slowly for insight, reading materials of local interest and by local authors, and community building around local libraries and reading events·

While there is substantial research about involuntary slow reading, which can arise from a lack of fluency and is a predictor of dyslexia, there are a few studies which demonstrate the positive value of voluntary slow reading·

Nell (1988) showed that there is substantial rate variability during natural reading, with most-liked pages being read significantly slower· Sherry Jr· and Schouten (2002) suggested that close reading could have commercial application as a research method for the use of poetry in marketing·

Advocates of speed-reading point out that subvocalization slows the speed of reading, but studies by Carver found no other observable negative effect on the reading process, and observed that the slower pace seemed to improve comprehension·

Further reading

Miedema, John (2009)· Slow Reading· Los Angeles, CA: Litwin Books·

Sire, James (1978)· How to Read Slowly· Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press·

（https://en·wikipedia·org/wiki/Slow_reading）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 1, 2021 at 10:11pm

Mark Bauerlein: Nietzsche on Slow Reading

In response to the article on slow reading, Karl Maurer sent the following citation from Nietzsche, written in 1886 near Genoa:

“Besides, we are friends of the lento, I and my book. I have not been a philologist in vain — perhaps I am one yet: a teacher of slow reading. I even come to write slowly. At present it is not only my habit, but even my taste — a perverted taste, maybe — to write nothing but what will drive to despair every one who is ‘in a hurry.’ For philology is that venerable art which exacts from its followers one thing above all — to step to one side, to leave themselves spare moments, to grow silent, to become slow — the leisurely art of the goldsmith applied to language: an art which must carry out slow, fine work, and attains nothing if not lento. Thus philology is now more desirable than ever before; thus it is the highest attraction and incitement in an age of ‘work’: that is, of haste, of unseemly and immoderate hurry-skurry, which is so eager to ‘get things done’ at once, even every book, whether old or new. Philology itself, perhaps, will not so hurriedly ‘get things done.’ It teaches how to read well, that is, slowly, profoundly, attentively, prudently, with inner thoughts, with the mental doors ajar, with delicate fingers and eyes. My patient friends, this book appeals only to perfect readers and philologists: learn to read me well!”

Funny that the philosopher-poet of uncertainty, of “the raging discordance of truth and art,” of becoming and not being, of will to power, of the impulse not to stabilize and fixate and freeze the rushing torrent of time and life should be a “friend of the lento.” What Nietzsche discerns out of the hustling pace of labor and productivity and efficiency is the phony claim of fastness to advancement and improvement.

More isn’t better, though, and neither is quicker — not necessarily, and not in matters of the mind. But speed itself has so much momentum, Nietzsche suggests, that slow reading becomes an adversarial force. In his heated rendition, reading “slowly, profoundly, attentively, prudently” is a contrarian act, not a plodding, old-fashioned bookwormish retreat. （see next column）

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on June 1, 2021 at 9:40pm

We are in a similar situation now in higher education. Young people today process more words than ever before and in faster time — allegro, not lento. To meet them, more classrooms and more course assignments follow suit, for instance, assigning blogs instead of papers, short readings instead of long ones. The unfortunate truth is that fast reading and fast writing don’t make people more flexible, more capable of slow reading and writing when the situation demands them. We need a mix, which means that more humanities professors need to recognize slow reading and writing as a meaningful activity, one that must be preserved against the tidal wave of texting, posting, chatting, networking, and other fifth-gear practices of our time.

But, after all, why must we proclaim so loudly and with such intensity what we are, what we want, and what we do not want? Let us look at this more calmly and wisely; from a higher and more distant point of view. Let us proclaim it, as if among ourselves, in so low a tone that all the world fails to hear it and us! Above all, however, let us say it slowly . . . This preface comes late, but not too late: what, after all, do five or six years matter? Such a book, and such a problem, are in no hurry; besides, we are friends of the lento, I and my book. It is not for nothing that one has been a philologist, perhaps one is a philologist still, that is to say, a teacher of slow reading: in the end one also writes slowly. Nowadays it is not only my habit, it is also to my taste—a malicious taste, perhaps?—no longer to write anything which does not reduce to despair every sort of man who is “in a hurry.” For philology is that venerable art which demands of its votaries one thing above all: to go aside, to take time, to become still, to become slow—it is a goldsmith’s art and connoisseurship of the word which has nothing but delicate, cautious work to do and achieves nothing if it does not achieve it lento. But for precisely this reason it is more necessary than ever today, by precisely this means does it entice and enchant us the most, in the midst of an age of “work,” that is to say, of hurry, of indecent and perspiring haste, which wants to “get everything done” at once, including every old or new book: this art does not so easily get anything done, it teaches to read well, that is to say, to read slowly, deeply, looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers . . . My patient  friends,  this  book  desires  for  itself  only  perfect  readers and philologists: learn to read me well!

Ruta near Genoa, in the autumn of 1886.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn: Thoughts on the Prejudices of Morality. Preface (to the Second Edition, 1887)

 (SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 Brainstorm)

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on May 30, 2021 at 8:48pm

拒絕套語：用耐心品味破解文字

如今我們的本能不是去深入思考問題，讓想法在大腦中沈澱，而是找到最直接、最現成的套話。——卡蘿·奧諾德《放慢生活腳步》

文本的信息汲取需要一個過程，因為信息從某些方面来說，是一個多元體的組合，也是多層次的，因此在快速閱讀中，可能會導致對更優質的信息的遺漏。所以“慢閱讀”可以使讀者充分的思考深入的思考。在快速閱讀流行的時代慢閱讀會讓讀者們享受閱讀的悠然自得。克服焦慮的閱讀感覺。

同時快速閱讀也不應該一味的是壞事，知識閱讀的效率提高的問題。有的讀者對閱讀的文本的注意力不夠或者閱讀的方法不夠科學，都會降低閱讀速度，這種慢閱讀實不可取的。

此外，文學與電影不同，電影是以直觀的畫面呈現在觀眾的面前，且轉瞬即逝，它本身就慢不下來；而文字表達則需要讀者在頭腦中將文字轉換成畫面，需要讀者調動自己的記憶、情感去破解文字的密碼，它需要耐心品味，在閱讀的過程中甚至要停下來想一想才能品出滋味，而不是一味地“快”。

Comment by Momogun 詩男 on May 26, 2021 at 5:29pm

Nietzsche: How to read well

“Let us proclaim it, as if among ourselves, in so low a tone that all the world fails to hear it and us! Above all, however, let us say it slowly…. This preface comes late, but not too late: what, after all, do five or six years matter? Such a book, and such a problem, are in no hurry; besides, we are friends of the lento, I and my book. I have not been a philologist in vain—perhaps I am one yet: a teacher of slow reading. I even come to write slowly. At present it is not only my habit, but even my taste—a perverted taste, maybe—to write nothing but what will drive to despair every one who is “in a hurry.” For philology is that venerable art which exacts from its followers one thing above all—to step to one side, to leave themselves spare moments, to grow silent, to become slow—the leisurely art of the goldsmith applied to language: an art which must carry out slow, fine work, and attains nothing if not lento. For this very reason philology is now more desirable than ever before; for this very reason it is the highest attraction and incitement in an age of “work”: that is to say, of haste, of unseemly and immoderate hurry-skurry, which is intent upon “getting things done” at once, even every book, whether old or new. Philology itself, perhaps, will not “get things done” so hurriedly: it teaches how to read well: i.e. slowly, profoundly, attentively, prudently, with inner thoughts, with the mental doors ajar, with delicate fingers and eyes.”  —Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn of Day. (trans. John McFarland Kennedy / Source: https://timesflowstemmed.com/) 

                   （Members of a Wellington, New Zealand, club gather weekly to read slowly / https://www.wsj.com/）

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