On Reading

If reading has become a less practised activity, it is because the technological revolution in the late 90s has introduced us to a new way of representing ideas. As the internet comes to dominate a great portion of our life, drowning us with videos and images, there exists a need to confess we no longer have complete faith in words. The internet, on the face of it, seems to want to inculcate in us an ability of visual appreciation, rather than submit our sensory pleasures to the monotony of words and the tedious structure of sentences, it suggests we should learn how to appreciate the diversity of colours and the beauty of movements rather than serenity. Perhaps it won't be long until a man who makes videos on YouTube and posts images in his blog may be able to replace an essayist like Francis Bacon or Michel de Montaigne who was able to change minds and fill lives.

What, then, is wrong with videos and images? The problem lies not in videos and images per se, but rather, in what gives rise to the uprising of this visually oriented artistic movement. In the age of the internet, artistic talents are no longer confined within a group of carefully categorised individuals. Everyone can be artists. Encouraged by this democratic vision of being directors and photographers, it is not uncommon to see they are spamming the internet through social platforms such as Facebook, blogs, and Youtube.

Unfortunately, however democratic art may be, it is precisely the reason why such commonly valued behaviour undermines beauty. Instead of employing the art of photography and filming as conscious efforts of seeing and of noticing the minutest details of something beautiful, many use them as a medium as substitution something that can assure them the possession of beauty. Therefore, quantity, rather than quality, is raised to a status of supreme importance.

Moreover, the spamming of images and short films on the internet may as well deprive us of the ability to appreciate beauty in words, the inability to appreciate a beautifully composed essay by a fine prose stylist. For those who are accustomed to the art of reading, it is not hard to understand how words can shape our thinking. Our pleasure in thought, on most occasions, arises from our intimacy with words. It is almost as if it is deemed too impossible to indulge in the noble act of thinking without our inherent semantic instinct. Visual images give free play to ambiguities while language gives it to precision. Small wonder why philosophers write books.

Another benefit of reading is perhaps escapism. Short films and images may deliver genuine messages as profound as those in literature, however, our desire for subtle meanings is easily interrupted by other emotionally provoking things such as music, costume, and a beautifully designed scenery. But in reading a book, we can, without the interruption of other art forms, abstract ourselves from current surroundings and enter a more agreeable world, being able to concentrate on one medium, namely, words, and therefore recognise the beauty they are able to offer at full force.

Reading also leaves room for for better imagination because writers are able to portray inner experience and behaviours in their minutest details which most directors and photographers fail. A book will have sensitised us, stimulated and refined our aesthetic and emotional senses, and elevated them to a level comparable to that of artists. We are easier to be sexually aroused by a erotic novel instead of a pornographic film.

Taking photographs and directing short films are as equally praiseworthy activities as reading. But in the age of technology, our attention to both becomes unbalanced. So while devoting most of our days to browsing Facebook and YouTube, let us not forget leaving some time for a leisurely stroll in bookstores.

W