Why is this

cartoon funny?

Discuss.Do you agree? How do

you read the

news?

READING: an evolution, a revolution

NEIL GAIMAN QUOTES SOURCED FROM: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/08/03/neil-gaiman-view-from-the-cheap-seats-

reading/ Neil Gaiman on why we read, by Maria Popova, Brainpickings

Q1. a) Name an interesting feature about early writing & b) Say why it happened.c) What is the problem with this feature?d) What was the solution?

Q2. a) What happened in circa 800/900 CE?b) What were the consequences? c) How did it change the act of reading?

Q3. a) What happened in 1450?b) Before this invention, which people read books? And afterwards?c) What ‘central fact of culture’ have we seen for the last 500 years?

Q4. a) What does the speaker say about the arrival of screens b) What kind of reading are we seeing? c) What does he compare it to?

Listen and answer the following questions:http://bigthink.com/videos/from-papyrus-to-ipad-the-evolution-of-reading Nicholas Carr, interviewed by Max Miller.

evolutionˌiːvəˈluːʃ(ə)n,ˈɛvəluːʃ(ə)n/nounnoun: evolution; plural noun: evolutions1.the process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth.2. the gradual development of something."the forms of written languages undergo constant evolution”

Rebecca Solnit said: “A book is a heart that beats in the chest of another.”

HOW DO WE READ? In your groups, brainstorm ideas about how the WAY we read has changed. Give examples. Consider the influence of technology and the Internet.

Comics (1930s)

Graphic novels (late 1970s)

Paperbacks (1935, Penguin Books)

Manuscripts

Papyrus

Screens or e-reading devices (eg Kindle 2007)

Religious texts in well-kept books

Online (from mid-1990s)

Symbols incised on cave walls

THE PURPOSES OF READING: why do we read?In your groups, brainstorm ideas about WHY people read. Think about different periods of history (Medieval, Renaissance, the Modern era, today)

To remember

To learn

To belong (Fandoms)

To escape reality

To relax

To be informed

To develop empathy

To be changed, positively

To be stimulated

Writing nearly a century after Hermann Hesse’s magnificent manifesto for ‘why the book will never lose its magic no matter how technology evolves’, Gaiman borrows a prefect metaphor to substantiate his belief that books will endure in and perhaps past the age of screens:“As Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, over twenty years before the Kindle showed up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old: there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath resistant, solar operated, feel good in your hand: they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them.”However, Gaiman adds, “We need libraries. We need books. We need literate citizens. I do not care — I do not believe it matters — whether these books are paper or digital, whether you are reading on a scroll or scrolling on a screen. The content is the important thing.”

In your groups, discuss Gaiman’s opinion on books vs screens. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Prepare an answer, with examples and details, for the class.

Author Neil Gaiman writes, “Books are the way that we communicate with the dead. The way that we learn lessons from those who are no longer with us, that humanity has built on itself, progressed, made knowledge incremental rather than something that has to be relearned, over and over. There are tales that are older than most countries, tales that have long outlasted the cultures and the buildings in which they were first told.

In your groups, discuss this quote from Gaiman. Do you agree or disagree? Why? Prepare an answer, with examples and details, for the class.

WHY WE READ: “The role of stories to unify—as opposed to divide, to engage rather than to marginalize—is more important than ever.” Barack Obama, former POTUS, discusses books and his love of reading with Michiko Kakutani. | The New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/books/obamas-secret-to-surviving-the-white-house-years-books.html?emc=eta1&_r=1