Free To Be Poet Critic; theory of poetry Forum Lento

The more slowly one reads, the more profoundly one absorbs.  Although I am quite capable of skimming or burning through a work experiencing visceral and instinctual reactions, when I am riveted to a work, I am much more likely to study sentences and paragraphs slowly, swooping back around for multiple readings while I dream off on the thoughts, images and impressions, to focus again, going off again, engaging and discoursing with ideas that morph with interaction.

Slow and multiple readings are the key to critiquing.

yes, i also do this internally; i'm given to absorbed wionder and 'double-think' about many happenstance considerations; i ruminate to the rythm of the sea, so there is a rise and fall according to natural lunar cycles; guess I'm a lunatic thinker after all ... lol

I tend to be fast ironically ... even when reading slow ... I read like a largo or adagio in Shostakovich, you know with a lot of sudden quirks; but I love to read and as serious as I am, I also am a person who is happy and smiles a lot. Multiple readings, yes … the swooping back and forth is useful, reminds of the visual saccade in ordinary perception; to find a balance in order to come to a meaning/interpretation of the work. I think the mood is important aswell, which is why in the books I read I am always in between different ones, same with my writing because I think the absorption of literary spirit (or expression in case of writing) gets tainted if the mood is not proper.

 

Steven