How do YOU read?

Mark.Gover (21602MRG who-is-at MSU.EDU)
Wed, 13 Dec 95 17:05 EST

Great question from Don Cunningham ("How do YOU read?"). I've also noticed
thatmy assimilation of what I read (and, presumably hear and witness) has a
lot to do with the nature of my thinking up to that point. The seeming
serendipity of information retrieval may really be an indication that ideas
favor the soil of prepared minds (kind of like "ya' hear what ya' wanna'
hear"). Frightful to think we lead so with our preconceptions. But it makes
thepoint that reading is by no means passive. Meaning lies somewhere between
what the author intends and what I seem to understand. Its neither in the
text nor in my head but some place in between - in the dialogue (Bahktin's
point).

Mark Gover
Michigan State University
Educational Psychology