On Reading
“On Reading” - Email Marketing {example}
~ short email marketing copy {example} on the power of *reading.* Written from a general, educational perspective, on the basic value of reading as a concept and practice, including personal knowledge and passion within the core messaging, from me as a reader/writer. Think of the source as a not-for-profit organization focused on the promotion of reading in kids and adults, toward an impassioned recapturing of what may be becoming a lost art in the accelerated age of social media and attention deficits.
Who is still reading?
You are, clearly. Right now. Yay!
But I don’t just mean this message. I mean reading - books, articles, newsletters, novels, philosophy, theory, memoirs, white papers, accounts of history, expository, descriptive, persuasive, and narrative writings, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading
What is reading, truly? Multifaceted in its biological boons, it is the experience of our mind making sense of the symbols of language. Reading allows us individually to inhabit the world unlike practically anything else. To read is to mentally take on the experience of another person, or world, for a short time. It is both time travel and mind transfer.
In How To Read Literature Like A Professor, Thomas C. Foster says:
“A reader’s imagination is the act of one creative intelligence engaging another.”
One way or another, we read to learn. Language and learning are our two greatest superpowers as human beings. Our innate talent for language and our ability to learn as we speak, to continuously adapt to our environment and shape it to our ends, is what separates us humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. With such cognitive capacity comes great power and responsibility.
From out of books, culture emerges and changes are cultivated within minds, hearts, individuals, communities. For better or worse, stories and philosophies, turned toward benevolent or malevolent ends, shape the world. A reasonable assumption: the more well-read a person is the more likely they are to make good decisions. At the very least, avid readers harbor more knowledge to undergird their decision-making process, if not more self-awareness to boot. The more one enjoys reading, the more likely one is to enjoy writing - and the more likely they are to create, or vulnerably share their own experiences, whether in fiction or non, ultimately drawing them closer to the community around them.
In “The Rebel”, Albert Camus’ exhaustive essay on the history of revolt, rebellion and revolution culminating in the middle 20th-century upheavals, he outlines Hegel’s analysis as to the true differentiator between Man and non-Man beings:
“Animals, according to Hegel, have an immediate knowledge of the exterior world, a perception of the self, but not the knowledge of self, which distinguishes man. The latter is only really born at the moment when he becomes aware of himself as a rational being. Therefore his essential characteristic is self-consciousness.
“Consciousness of self, to be affirmed, must distinguish itself from what it is not. Man is a creature who, to affirm his existence and his difference, denies. What distinguishes consciousness of self from the world of nature is not the simple act of contemplation by which it identifies itself with the exterior world and finds oblivion, but the desire it can feel with regard to the world. This desire re-establishes its identity when it demonstrates that the exterior world is something apart. In its desire, the exterior world consists of what it does not possess, but which nevertheless exists, and of what it would like to exist but which no longer does. Consciousness of self is therefore, of necessity, desire. But in order to exist it must be satisfied, and it can only be satisfied by the gratification of its desire. It therefore acts in order to gratify itself and, in so doing, it denies and suppresses its means of gratification. It is the epitome of negation. To act is to destroy in order to give birth to the spiritual reality of consciousness. But to destroy an object unconsciously, as meat is destroyed, for example, in the act of eating, is a purely animal activity. To consume is not yet to be conscious.
“Desire for consciousness must be directed toward something other than unconscious nature. The only thing in the world that is distinct from nature is, precisely, self-consciousness. Therefore desire must be centered upon another form of desire; self-consciousness must be gratified by another form of self-consciousness. In simple words, man is not recognized — and does not recognize himself — as a man as long as he limits himself to subsisting like an animal. He must be acknowledged by other men. All consciousness is, basically, the desire to be recognized and proclaimed as such by other consciousnesses. It is others who beget us. Only in association do we receive a human value, as distinct from an animal value.
“In that the supreme value for the animal is the preservation of life, consciousness should raise itself above the level of that instinct in order to achieve human value. It should be capable of risking its life. To be recognized by another consciousness, man should be ready to risk his life and to accept the chance of death. Fundamental human relations are thus relations of pure prestige, a perpetual struggle, to the death, for recognition of one human being by another.”
~ Albert Camus, The Rebel (1951)
From this perspective (read or die! jk!), it stands to reason that conscious expression is truly what makes us human beings.
Reading helps to affirm our humanity.
Unfortunately, in recent times, people are not really reading. Around a quarter of the population of the United States claims to have not read a book in the last year. Some additional facts:
In general, it seems as though the less educated a person is, the less likely they are to be reading.
All correlative reasons and individualized judgments aside, we must see these developments, on a societal level, as harmful. Reading is just not happening as much anymore in our world. While “reading” still occurs on social media, through alternative, technologically-dominated forms displaced from the old styles, we know that’s not the same. Why this is, what it might mean, what the long-term causes of this lacking may lead to — all difficult to appraise. More learning is needed on this; in our view, to name it as a problem is obvious; to name it as a crisis, more evidence should be gathered and put to use. Lacking attention spans borne of social media hyper-usage seems to be a major culprit.
In all, the primary message to be transferred with this communication, from us to you, is simply to affirm the value of long-form reading (i.e. books, essays, etc. fiction and non-fiction) to your brain, heart and soul:
Reading can enhance your intelligence and memory - https://www.realsimple.com/health/preventative-health/benefits-of-reading-real-books
Reading can be therapeutic, relieving anxiety and stress - https://readingpartners.org/blog/four-compelling-reasons-shut-off-screen-open-good-book
Reading can improve your vocabulary and your own writing skills - https://jrelibrary.com/articles/benefits-of-reading-why-you-should-read-more/
Reading can activate your empathy and compassion - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055341
Reading can augment neurological connectivity and reduce the chance of Alzheimer’s - https://www.mic.com/articles/99408/science-has-great-news-for-people-who-read-actual-books
The list of boons from reading goes on… https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-reading-books
Whether you currently find it tedious, fun every once in a while, never worthy of your time, or the best way to spend every afternoon... know that reading is an imperative flourish upon the human condition.
So, we say go forth with the knowledge gained from this reading and share it. Then, maybe read some more. Unabashedly, you have now learned that such narrative journeys of language, through reading and writing both, such reciprocal recognitions of consciousness past and present, will do you good. ~
