Mechanics: Text and Image

Abstract

After more than 2000 years of trying we still do not have a satisfactory understanding of how we read.¹ Scholars have noted the importance of interactive links in the evolution of the history of reading, aware that various processes interact with each other in complex ways. Yet we remain largely ignorant of what actually happens to us mentally, physically and emotionally as we cross the liminal border which separates the realms of illiteracy and literacy. Marcel Proust termed reading a “fruitful miracle.” More recently students of reading have focused on its physiological aspects, such as the optical, neurological and cognitive pathways that allow reading to take place.² We know that the ability to interpret and in turn to produce a written form of communication is largely dependent upon and inextricably linked with speech. As Steven Pinker expresses it, “children are wired for sound but print is an optical accessory that must be bolted on.”³ The primacy of the oral/aural ensured that pre-modern societies privileged the spoken as opposed to the written word. “For most of written history, reading was speaking … Reading has always been different from writing. Writing prioritizes sound … Reading, however, prioritizes meaning.”⁴