 | Ludic Reading and |
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| Ludic Reading and |
One of the concepts I was introduced to in grad school was ludic reading. The reader experiences ludic reading when the story becomes "reality". All the senses are totally involved, and there is a physiological reaction to the story. You know you've experienced it when you look up from a book, and no longer recognize your surroundings. Or when the characters float into your consciousness, and you begin to wonder how they are doing.... I don't know how much the author has to do with the experience, and how much the reader contributes. What I do know is, for me, I am more likely to read ludicly when I read certain authors. People who read ludicly are usually "addicted" to reading. The processes of ludic reading are discussed in Victor Nell's work, Lost in a Book: The Psychology of Reading for Pleasure, Yale University Press, 1988.
Recently I've discovered that there is a word for my favourite type of literature: mythopoeic. It means "mythmaking; productive of myth". Many of our fairy tales are mythopoeic, as are the new fantasies. Terri Windling has created a wonderful series, called, oddly enough, The Fairy Tale Series. Thus far, the series includes:
I discovered the word, mythopoeic, when I picked up Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer. She received the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for that work. Then I found Peter S. Beagle's book, The Folk of the Air, the 1987 recipient of the award. By now, my curiousity was cresting. I did an Internet search, and lo, there is The Mythopoeic Society! The wave had curled. I turned to my well-used copy of A Handbook to Literature (Thrall, Hibbard and Holman, revised 1960):
"Mythopoeic: A term applied to writers who, suffering the lack of an acceptable or widely believed body of mythic material to give order to their imaginative restatements of experience, set about consciously to make a mythic frame for their works. Notable mythopoeic writers have been Blake, Yeats, Joyce, and Eliot." (p. 301)
The wave resolved. I have been seeking out and reading mythopoeic authors as far back as I can remember. Read Attributes of Mythic/Mythopoeic Thought for an interesting look at the history of philosophy. The author notes that "philosophic thought does not replace mythopoeic thought but supplements it".
I've noticed that pages like this one can go on forever. Everyone is excited about sharing their favourite books and authors-- and that's good! The Internet has in a way leveled the playing field. We may not have the face to face contact with others who have similar reading interests, but now it is easier to find like minds.
These authors feel like best friends.
Although every season has its own reading, I can read and reread those authors. But seasons change, so I'll be updating this page as we go along. If you go to Favourite Cyberspace Hangouts, you'll get an idea of other materials I enjoy reading. Give it a moment to load.
 | Passport to the |
My first library card was with the Carnegie Public Library in Sumter, SC. My great, great aunts lived next door to the library; I would visit with them, and then drop into the library. The children's room was in the basement.
Shortly after that, the library built the Sumter County Public Library on the outskirts of town. During the opening, I picked up the "read butterfly" button, reproduced here.
Now, one might ask, what's a weird philosophy major like you (by the way, all philosophy majors are weird) doing in library school? I generally avoid speaking for other people; so, speaking for myself, I would respond thusly:
Just what else am I supposed to do?!
Actually, that's not my answer. This is: My motivation for going into philosophy was to be able to understand how people think, what they think about, and how those thoughts affect our lives. And that's pretty much the reason I'm in library school now. We need information about ideas, thoughts, theories, and facts. Many people, however, don't know how to find what they need; they don't know what's out there; and they don't know how to use what they find. Sometimes, they don't even know what questions to ask in order to access the information. So for me, philosophy and librarianship go hand-in-hand.
In fifth grade, I organized a classroom library, because in those days, access to the school library was limited. The class contributed books, and I set up a tracking system for checking out and returning the books. My own books were organized, and I kept an alphabetical by author file on every book I owned. I guess it was bashert-- Yiddish for kismet, fate, karma.
And it certainly doesn't hurt that I love books. Period. The added value is the electronic transfer of information. What a great time to study for an MLIS-- Master of Library and Information Science!
