Reading Nabokovs' work I began to understand the fundamentals of being what he refers to as a "good reader". Before reading his speech I, like many of you would have agreed that good readers simply read all the time, read super fast, and easily understand everything they read. This is obviously a fallacy. We are not born readers, none of us come out of the womb already understanding every word in the dictionary, or reading 500 words per minute. This is a sad fact of life, it is also the reason that what Nabokov teaches rings true. Imagination, memory, a dictionary, and some amount of artistic sense, these are the traits Nabokov claims make up a "good reader". I believe the most important of those are imagination and a dictionary. Imagination is foremost, without it there can be no understanding of the text. Imagination allows us to move past the simple lines connected together to create the text, it gives us a sense of being, within the story. When we imagine and visualize what is happening it tends to draw us into the world the writer has created for his or her characters as if an omnipotent god looking down from above, we are able to see the inner workings of these characters and their environment. Next comes the dictionary. Though this sounded at first to me like the last thing a good reader would need, I thought about it and actually used it myself in reading his speech. The moment I read the definition of the unknown word it was no longer just a word on the page, it was not just a word I would normally just skip over and forget, now it had meaning, now it was real. This simple act of opening the dictionary (A.K.A. Google define: ?) gave me greater appreciation for the work, not because of what it was saying but because of what I learned from the authors unwillingness to settle for a second grade vocabulary. The dictionary is not just one of his choices so you can figure out the word, it is a choice so you can learn.
As for being a "
good reader", am I? I really can't say whether I am a truly good reader. I try to use imagination when reading, but it is not a skill that comes easy to me. And the dictionary, that is something that I would have scoffed at in the past. Now on the other hand, I plan to stop jumping over words just because they are not familiar and try to expand my own vocabulary to match the author I am reading.
http://100bookninja.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/a-little-reading-inspiration/
Feel free to leave unfiltered comments, I personally love some good criticism...
Scott,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your thoughts on Nabokov's writing. I think you identified two of the most important aspects of a good reader. Imagination is absolutely critical to the reading process. I feel that it allows the reader to transform the letters into more than just words, but an alternate reality as well. In that sense, I think that a single book can have endless meaning, and each reader interoperates the story in a slightly different way.
I, like you, never thought it a necessity to have a dictionary when reading. That changed for me when I bought my Nook. You can highlight a word, and look up the definition. The first time I did this, I realized the importance of understanding each word that you read. You captured this very well in your post. It absolutely is an opportunity to learn and expand your vocabulary, and at the same time gives the reader a better understanding of the intent of the writer.
Good post, and thanks for sharing.