What is reading?

I found it very interesting how Manguel talks about the different theories about how we read. Since people didn't understand how eyes and light worked, there were several different theories on how we are able to read. Aristotle believed that you took the words into your "innards" which included important vital organs and which he believed to have control over the brain. Perhaps even more entertaining is the theory of the Greek physician Galen, who ventured that there might be a "visual spirit" that lives inside our eyes and then crosses the gap between our eyes and the page in order for us to see the words written there.

I guess I understand why there was so much speculation around how we were able to transform little lines and curves into something intelligible; something that actually means something--and we can comprehend it. Even though we now have the technology to understand how we really read (unfortunately there are no spirits living in our eyes), the concept is still magical. A little child successfully reading a book for the first time experiences the same wonder and amazement that Aristotle must have felt when he was constructing his theory. This, I believe, is why books are still a relevant medium.

A History of Reading Reflection

In chapter one of A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel, I find it very interesting how he dissects words and letters into their most basic form; simply the forms they shape on the page. This should be common for children or learners of a new and foreign language. However, I believe this is a phenomenon we generally take for granted. To actually learn how to say a word based simply on lines on a sheet of paper is incredible and took thousands of years to develop. This, too, places Latin alphabets apart from their Asian counterpoints, where pictorial representation is key. Without these letterforms, I think it’s easy to pay too little attention to the artistry of the written language itself which is not only beautiful, but can tell us a lot about how our ancestors view language, which in turn shapes how we view language in the present and the future.