3.1112 reading: silent, noisy, ancient, modern (115)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Wed, 28 Feb 90 19:57:55 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1112. Wednesday, 28 Feb 1990.


(1) Date: Tue, 27 Feb 90 19:41 CST (12 lines)
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Ancient reading

(2) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 00:46:00 EST (9 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 3.1107 silent reading; electronic discourse (184)

(3) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 10:03:00 EST (18 lines)
From: "HALPORN,JAMES,CLAS" <halpornj@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: HUMANIST: READING ALOUD

(4) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 17:08:53-020 (25 lines)
From: onomata@bengus (nissan ephraim)
Subject: reading aloud.

(5) Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 12:00:50 EST (17 lines)
From: Bronwen Heuer <BRONWEN@ccvm.sunysb.edu>
Subject: Re: 3.1104 reading, silent and noisy (70)

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 90 19:41 CST
From: Robin Smith <RSMITH@KSUVM>
Subject: Ancient reading

Last fall's postings on HUMANIST concerning reading aloud throughout
history were, as I remember, fairly thorough in covering the main
sources. But Hoke Robinson might find W. V. Harris, _Ancient Literacy_
(Harvard UP, 1989) at least of passing interest (though it won't answer
the story about the medieval silent monk--a story which sounds
suspicious to me, unless it's the very early Middle Ages).

And if Hoke Robinson should happen to be reading this, Hi there.
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------14----
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 00:46:00 EST
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@OAC.UCLA.EDU>
Subject: Re: 3.1107 silent reading; electronic discourse (184)

And is there not work that shows that even with silent reading the vocal
chords are moving subvocally, so to say? That the sound is suppressed
but not the physical activity of pronunciation? That has been
measured, I believe, so that it implies that the body does the reading
too. Kessler
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------24----
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 10:03:00 EST
From: "HALPORN,JAMES,CLAS" <halpornj@ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject: HUMANIST: READING ALOUD

Like Jim O'Donnell I am amused (but also bored) by the reappearance of
last year's silent reading contest to see how many humanists have read
Augustine's *Confessions* (through Book IX at least).
On reading *aloud*, you might consider the novel by Raymond Jean, *La
Lectrice*, Arles: Editions Actes Sud, 1986 (not translated into Eng.)
or the even more amusing movie based on the book, also called *La
Lectrice* and now available for VCR.
Jean chose as the epigraph for his novel this remark of Jacques Lacan:
"Il y a dans toute femme quelque chose d'e'gare'... et dans tout
homme quelque chose de ridicule."

J.W. Halporn (Classics/CompLit, Indiana U.) (HALPORNJ@UCS.INDIANA.EDU)


(4) --------------------------------------------------------------48----
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 17:08:53-020
From: onomata@bengus (nissan ephraim)
Subject: reading aloud.


The Hebrew verb for "reading" is qara, that is the same for "shouting".
"Naming" is "qara [his name] ..."

Learning traditional texts by reading them aloud (or, at least, by
buzzing them aloud) is a standard that still survives. In her
Judeo-German diary, Glueckel of Hammeln states that she taught herself
to forget about the city she was born in, and resign to life in a small
town, by listening to her father-in-law's humming his daily lesson.
Moving lips while praying is a related practice, and orthopraxis manuals
used to prescribe that a person that finds moving lips silently
difficult, could hum the text, instead, provided this does not disturb
other persons also tring to concentrate. Seemingly, reading aloud
("letting one's ears hear what one's mouth says"), or, anyway, not
completely silently, has to do with helping concentration, in the case
of Judaism, rather than with stressing oratorial qualities of the text.

Would experts comment on this?

Ephraim Nissan BITNET: onomata@bengus

(5) --------------------------------------------------------------27----
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 90 12:00:50 EST
From: Bronwen Heuer <BRONWEN@ccvm.sunysb.edu>
Subject: Re: 3.1104 reading, silent and noisy (70)

To share just one of the more delightful traditions among
my groups of friends is an annual holiday gathering where A Child's
Christmas in Wales is read aloud. [despite my welsh name, I was
not the organizer of it and am probably the only welsh person at
the gathering]. It is well loved by people of all ages, religions, and
ethnicities....and I think everyone wishes we did more readings together.

bronwen heuer room 137 phone(516)632-8054
coordinator of user services computing center
state university of ny bitnet: bronwen@sbccvm
stony brook, ny 11794 internet: bronwen@ccvm.sunysb.edu
"I arrange things by cosmo-equational mathematics, that's how I swing."
Sun Ra