I am often inspired by inverting advice or conventional wisdom and exploring the merits of its opposite.
This post is an inspired response to Austin Kleon's recent newsletter and his general favor of a practice he refers to as marginalia, or reading with a pencil.
Here is a peek at my thought process.
Austin Kleon repeatedly makes the case for marginalia--for conversing with books/authors/ideas by writing in the margins--jotting down notes, responses, and related ideas. But I actually oppose this practice because I believe in composting--that is, Natalie Goldberg's suggestion that ideas, when chewed and swallowed, undergo a form of digestion--of integration--of becoming known via embodiment.
That is how I process. There is a time lapse, a temporal delay between reading something and allowing time to digest it--and therefore having a meaningful response to it. In fact, I think that ability to delay judgment--to feel and be with and observe our reactions--is a much more profound skill than having an immediate association or response. It is the key to deep thinking--delayed processing. It's actually resisting the urge to respond instantaneously that increases our capacity for deep thought. For the integration of perspectives.
Reading with a pencil might actually prohibit depth because it focuses on producing--on necessarily having or prizing--a response to an author. It trades response with resonance.
Of course you are free to employ his advice: read with a pencil and record your responses as they arise. I may even try experimenting with this style myself and--who knows!--maybe I'll discover some of its benefits. But I also encourage you to experiment with its opposite.
Try reading something and delaying judgment. Not that you won't have thoughts and associations arise spontaneously--that's a given. But try not to get too attached to any one thing. Hold what the author is saying loosely and you will allow yourself to be inspired on a deeper level.
Instead of treating your reading as a conversation in real time, allow it to be a process that takes place in your consciousness and even your physical body over time. Let there be a period of digestion, of composting, of delayed reaction. You might find that you have a more embodied, insightful, integrated response. And then write with a pencil, or a pen.
This post is an inspired response to Austin Kleon's recent newsletter and his general favor of a practice he refers to as marginalia, or reading with a pencil.
Here is a peek at my thought process.
Austin Kleon repeatedly makes the case for marginalia--for conversing with books/authors/ideas by writing in the margins--jotting down notes, responses, and related ideas. But I actually oppose this practice because I believe in composting--that is, Natalie Goldberg's suggestion that ideas, when chewed and swallowed, undergo a form of digestion--of integration--of becoming known via embodiment.
That is how I process. There is a time lapse, a temporal delay between reading something and allowing time to digest it--and therefore having a meaningful response to it. In fact, I think that ability to delay judgment--to feel and be with and observe our reactions--is a much more profound skill than having an immediate association or response. It is the key to deep thinking--delayed processing. It's actually resisting the urge to respond instantaneously that increases our capacity for deep thought. For the integration of perspectives.
Reading with a pencil might actually prohibit depth because it focuses on producing--on necessarily having or prizing--a response to an author. It trades response with resonance.
Of course you are free to employ his advice: read with a pencil and record your responses as they arise. I may even try experimenting with this style myself and--who knows!--maybe I'll discover some of its benefits. But I also encourage you to experiment with its opposite.
Try reading something and delaying judgment. Not that you won't have thoughts and associations arise spontaneously--that's a given. But try not to get too attached to any one thing. Hold what the author is saying loosely and you will allow yourself to be inspired on a deeper level.
Instead of treating your reading as a conversation in real time, allow it to be a process that takes place in your consciousness and even your physical body over time. Let there be a period of digestion, of composting, of delayed reaction. You might find that you have a more embodied, insightful, integrated response. And then write with a pencil, or a pen.
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