The Ballerina also READS

Coping with a feisty research assistant…

Antonio: I need a summary of Mali’s history by close of play today.
Olivia: I have a ballet class this afternoon.
Antonio: OK. Midday?
Olivia: I’ll try. Need new reading glasses, you know.
Antonio: Get me all you can about Mansa Musa. If it’s good, I’ll foot the bill for new reading glasses.
Olivia: And new ballet shoes?
Antonio: Give an inch, they take a mile.
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Voice-over
Ad for a position considered: “Rigorous reading assistant needed.” Not mentioned: “No drama queens or ballerinas.” But what fun is scholarship without a bit of riposte?

Reading the Encyclopedia Britannica

A cluttered study…

Ursula: You could free up some shelves by giving away those Encyclopedia Britannicas.
George: But that’s my project. To read the Encyclopedia Britannica, not all the articles, say half of them. Before, you know… end of life.
Ursula: That’s  a challenge.
George: There’s a plan. Restricting myself mainly to the Micropedia for starters.
Ursula: Do you think you can finish this… this mission?
George: There’s an existentialist element. The focus is on the journey rather than the destination.
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Voice-over
The discussion goes on to cover creating a reading schedule, setting goals, prioritzing articles, taking notes and taking breaks, tracking progress. And the intrinsic value and enjoyment of the undertaking. Ursula asks if George intends to include the Macropedia but he replies he’s saving that for the afterlife.

Slow-reading John le Carré: Legacy of Spies

Is this his last novel?

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Georges: He’s well-known for saying, “This is my last book," or "This is my last interview.” Then he goes and does another.

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Smiley returns...

Pierre: Legacy of Spies. Hmm. It has a final ring to it. Like pulling all the threads together.

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Georges: Looking at the Cold War through the eyes of people nowadays. Who do not fully understand how cold and dark the era was.

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Pierre: I took a long time to read this book. I slow-read it. By which I mean, I read two pages forward and then bookmarked it for the next day one page back.

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Georges: You did this, I suspect, because you wished to savour the flavours.

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Pierre: It was not a gobble and go. It was not a page turner. You enter his mind and find chamber after chamber. All the time I’m thinking, is this the last time I sit at the table with a master?

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Voice-over

Fast reading is for writers who drive their story only through suspense, what happens next.

Slow reading is reserved for writers who transcend a genre.

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Reading tastes

There is an informal interfaculty meeting to be held in the Social Science Faculty. Dean of Science and Dean of Humanities arrive early and are told to wait in the Soc Sci dean’s office. They are drawn to the stack of books on a side table.

Science: He appears curious about many things, but seems to lean towards the humanities.
Humanities: But the ship?
Science: The ship is not a book. 
Humanities: But it’s an artifact, it accompanies the books, it reflects an interest in vessel-building, in navigation, those are sciences.
Science: Show me the software manuals, astronomy books, show me the books on politics, economics, global affairs. Show me the hard stuff. This stuff is for wimp-readers.
Humanities: Maybe you haven’t seen all his books. Maybe these are just his bedside reading. Who reads software manuals before sleeping? 
Science: You can’t assume anything from what you can’t see.

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Voiceover 
What do your reading tastes say about you? It can compromise you. The absent Soc Sci dean has an adversary in Science and an ally in Humanities. Their jousting exposes Science's  hard nose approach and casts Humanities in the role of Wimp Defender.

Never apologize for your reading tastes (Betty Rosenberg), but you may need to defend them.

Reading and Traveling

Frederich, who travels infrequently, is keen on reading books.

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Frederich: A good book can be filled with well-crafted utterances and analyses, from fun to opinion to declaration.

It makes me want to concur, demur and comment. Nod my forehead, shake my ears, and speak my piece.

Woman in the River: An outer oral interaction becomes an inner literary lip-reading.

Frederich: Going into a book is like going on a trip. The linearity and stuttering of listening and speaking is replaced by the random access to rooms of finely sculpted ideas of reading and writing.

In speech we watch the idea being chiseled. In reading we see the idea on display in a gallery.

Woman in the River: You hear me but I wonder if you are listening to me. You make my ideas your own.

Frederich: Possibly. Maybe. I might be.

Woman in the River: You are serially rephrasing again.

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Voice-over

Reading and traveling are parallel ideas occurring in two dimensions. Reading, an activity of the mind, sparks new thoughts. Traveling, a physical activity, sparks new thoughts. Two roads, both leading to Rome.

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