Reading Response #3

Sven Birkerts in “the owl has flown” has a plan to get the reader of the essay to start thinking about how much reading has changed through out history and that people don’t think deep enough anymore. Robert Darnton explains that in the Middle Ages “They only had a few books-the bible, an almanac, a devotional work or two- and they read them over and over again, usually aloud and in group, so that a narrow range of traditional literature became deeply impressed on their consciousness.” Then he goes on about how people in the 1800’s have had many materials to read like newspapers, magazines, etc. People only read it once and then go to the next thing. He is trying to show people his views of things. Trying to get the reader to realize that people should think and see deeper into things. He wants to show that people don’t take enough time anymore to stop and look at things deeper. People now skim through everything and don’t take the big picture out of it anymore. As Sven says, “Awed and intimidated by the availability of texts, faced with the all but impossible task of discriminating among them, the reader tends to move across surfaces, skimming, hastening from one site to the next without allowing the words to resonate inwardly.” A quote I found that ties in good with Birkerts project is “Wisdom: the knowing not of facts but of the truths about human nature and the processes of life.” I pretty much see it as that wisdom is through experiencing the things rather then thinking that you know everything. That’s why many say that older people are wiser. It’s because they have experienced life. They know the rights and wrong more then younger people do. They know the deeper meaning to everything. As Birkerts says, “…wisdom deified-is predicated on the assumption that one person can somehow grasp a total picture of life and its laws; comprehending the whole and the relation of parts.” Both quotes help him explain his idea on the fact that people should look deeper into things and that becoming wise is by knowing how life goes. Also, from how it sounds through experience. He puts that in there to help show what he means. So the reader can understand his ideas better by showing more of an example. It gets the person to think more open about what he is talking about. The strongest connection I found with Birkert’s essay is the “On Reading a Video Text” by Robert Scholes. Both of these writings are about how people should look deeper into things and see the bigger picture, but they both explain it using different way. Sven explains it by talking about the past and comparing it to people now. Robert Scholes explains it through using videos and commercials. Sven and Robert’s goes on about how there is more meaning to things if you look into them rather then just glancing at it. Most people don’t see the bigger pictures anymore. Everyone just takes life too fast. People just slow down in their lives and take time to look deeper into things and see bigger pictures.