Via ‘n skakel op De Papieren Man ontdek ek ‘n kostelike verslag op The Guardian. Een van hul gereelde rubriekskrywers en kompulsiewe leser, Bibi van der Zee, het besluit om ‘n hele week sonder enige boeke deur te bring. Die motivering vir dié besluit was om inderdaad vas te stel of sy “verslaaf” is aan lees en of haar konstante en toegewyde leesroetine nie dalk haar groei en produktiwiteit as individu belemmer nie: “I decided to try giving up books for a week because I have come to the point where I wonder if they are holding me back,” verduidelik sy. “On the whole, the world seems to think that books are always a good thing, that you can never get too much of them. People admit to being bookworms in the same way they admit to being ‘just too tidy really’, or ‘a bit of a workaholic’.”
Met bogenoemde as uitgangspunt, gee sy dan ‘n dag-tot-dag verslag van haar verslawing en besef teen Donderdag van die betrokke week dat haar verslawing véél meer is as ‘n bepaalde roetine wat verbreuk moet word; dat daar inderdaad ‘n psigologiese basis vir dié verslawing bestaan. En sy gaan steek kers op by Robert Darnton, direkteur van Harvard Biblioteek en kenner van boeke en leeskultuur: “Reading is mysterious,” vertel hy haar, “and we don’t really understand how it is that we make sense of these signs that are embedded in paper or on computer screens. There have been attempts by cognitive scientists to measure the chemical exchanges in the brain, but as far as I can tell no scientist has really fully explained it. They’re working on it.”
Volgens Van der Zee verskyn daar binnekort ‘n boek deur prof. Keith Oatley wat júís oor boekverslawing handel. Hy word soos volg deur haar aangehaal: “When readers were engaged in a story, the researchers found that, at the points in which the story said a protagonist undertook an action, the part of the brain which was activated was the part which the reader himself or herself would use to undertake the action. So, when the story- protagonist pulled a light cord, a region in the frontal lobes of the reader’s brain associated with grasping things was activated.”
Nietemin, vir jou leesvermaak plaas ek die laaste paragrawe van haar rubriek, want ‘n beter (en meer vermaaklike) verheerliking van lees en boeke kom jy selde teë: “Ah yes, stress. By Thursday, my early glow has worn off after a long day coping with winter, an ill parent, one particularly grumpy son, and the general detritus of life. I am incredibly tetchy and snappy; more than usual? Impossible to know (everyone’s too scared to tell me), but Friday is the same and even a little worse and I can’t find any way to relax, to switch off and get away from the things that you list in your head at 11.30pm at night. After school on Friday evening, when the boys have had tea and watched a bit of TV, they racket off downstairs for a game of hide and seek, and I slump down on to the sofa for a half hour that would usually involve a novel, a cuppa, and maybe a biscuit. Instead, after staring at the wall for a bit, I fetch my laptop and do some more work. Life feels deeply, wintrily joyless. It feels wall-to-wall grey. Books, I realise, have been one of my longest, truest friends. When I’m anxious, sad, angry, in need of comfort, a book is often the first place I will go: I even have books that I regularly re-read when I’m feeling particularly awful (can I just recommend the Bitch in the House if you’ve been a particularly bad mother that day?). And now I have just cast them aside, as if all my flaws are their fault, and not the other way round.”
Nou ja, toe. Laat dit vir jou ‘n les wees. En hou tog aan met lees; die regte boek op die regte tyd kan immers jou lewe red, of hoe?!
***
Op die webblad is daar vanoggend sommer heelwat nuwe leeswerk: Ester Naomi Perquin het ‘n lieflike stuk oor ‘n bepaalde paringsdans geplaas, Andries Bezuidenhout vergas ons met foto’s wat deur Jo Prins geneem is tydens “Oopmond” en Desmond Painter lewer sy stuk ter ondersteuning van Blogfokus.
Gepraat van dié maand se Blogfokus – die maand is alweer halfpad verby en daar lê tot op datum nog net twéé bydraes in die Brieweboks wat wag op beoordeling … So, haas jou en skryf ‘n brief oor jou gunsteling gedig oor ‘n skildery of skilder. Ai, mense, hoekom so traag?! Ter inspirasie plaas ek een hier onder.
Laat kom daai briewe.
LE
PORTRAIT OF ASN ARTIST, POOL WITH TWO FIGURES
‘n Skildery van David Hockney
Deur gekraakte water vin
die swemmer met wierende hare
en hande. Die wortels
van lig bars die water.
Die man op die swembadrand
se skaduwee wieg.
Die voet van die swemmer skop
teen die lig wat oor hom rank
en oor die water sprei
soos ‘n net.
Ingedagte
wier die swemmer
in die lignet.
(c) Johan van Wyk (Uit: Heldedade kom nie dikwels voor nie, 1978: Perskor-Uitgewery)
My suster op Lambertsbaai sê per sms: “Geen medisyne kan heel soos woorde nie, maar woorde kan ook verdeel, verkrummel, alles opkerf tot fyn ys. Woorde kan rillerig teen jou vel afgrint of jou streel soos ‘n moeder se hand, maar sonder woorde kan ons nie.
Wat is mense sonder woorde? Nie diere nie, ons het te veel van ons instink verloor. Mense sonder woorde is wandelende dofkoppe, waggelende stommes in ‘n wêreld sonder betekenis, want woorde is ook meedelers van ervaring, van gevoel, [of] gebrek aan gevoel.”
[jvl se gedig is baie mooi; die magnetisme/verdowing van die water se lignet!]