The Elder Statesman

A History of Reading
By Steven Roger Fischer
Part three of a trilogy
Reaktion Books
Hardcover, $29.95
Quality Paperback $17.95 

By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review

If you believe the naysayers who see the death of the written word because of computers, you have to remember they also said that with the invention of radio, then really put the death seal on reading when television came along. Strange that none of those predictions have affected the publishing of written material, whether it be the newspaper where you are now reading this book review or any of the other media publishing the written word.

Steven Roger Fischer’s ambitious undertaking in writing a trilogy, beginning with “A History of Language” in 1999 and continuing with “A History of Writing,” in 2003 and now the last of the trilogy, “A History of Reading,” traces the complete story of reading from the time when symbols served as words to modern day computer typesetting, as is the case of this book review.

Fischer, a U.S. born scholar, is director of the Institute of Polynesian Language and Literature in Auckland, N.Z. His inquisitive mind led him to write these fascinating books on how we came to improve communication through language, writing and reading. The first two of his books dealt with how we developed language and how we used that development in writing the language. This final book of the trilogy is perhaps his most ambitious book, opening new thoughts about  the everyday experience of reading. The book describes the ancient forms of reading and how in the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East innovations in printing transformed society’s attitude toward reading, citing the explosion of the book trade and the new font designs that made the written word more legible.  The sweeping reforms in public literacy in the 18^th and 19^th centuries brought about broadsheets, newspapers and public readings.

Every reader of this trilogy will find intimate details of how authors struggled to put down their works to share with generations not yet born. Interestingly, Fischer tells of a time when few people could read and depended on others – mostly clergy – to read aloud.

“Reading aloud remained extremely popular,” he noted, quoting from a journal written by Jane Austen in 1808 telling how family members – including herself — would read aloud nightly from classic works.

In his career, Charles Dickens often did public readings of his works, both as Fischer writes to promote his works and test the reader’s reaction to what he had written. “He was a consummate reader who carefully scripted his works to generate maximum responses from listeners,” Fischer said, even to the point of marginal notes to signal what emotion to display or what gestures to interject.

Fischer traces this to a time when oral reading gave way to silent reading and notes what a profound change came over mankind when individuals could actually read for themselves.

The advancement of printing technology led to books being more available, but many were still priced out of the reach of the common man. To solve this, Dickens and his publishers serialized his works in order for the common man to be able to purchase books, a chapter at a time. The high cost of books also led to the establishment of lending libraries.

Each of the books in the trilogy leads into the next. The first of the series, “A History of Language,” charts a complete history of language from grunts to the eloquent speech patterns of modern man. The second of the series, “A History of Writing,” discusses the origin and development of the written form from the earliest scratches on stone to modern day computer typesetting. It is indeed, a history of linguistics.

“A written text lives its own life, from century to century and millennium to millennium, discovered or rediscovered for what it says differently to each changing society and each changed individual,” Fischer wrote. Terry White, special envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Middle East, was in Lebanese captivity from 1987 to 1991, said he kept his sanity by constantly re-reading in his mind all his favorite books, Fischer wrote.  

Fischer does not believe the computer with all is magic powers will replace books, but in his final chapter he assesses the future in which it is likely that reading communication will soon exceed oral communication through the use of the personal computer and the internet. He believes reading will change, but after tracing it through eons of development he says the new reader can reshape the future of reading. How radical reading techniques will become is still a question.

(Bill Duncan can be reached at bduncan@nrtoday.com or by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470) 

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