Marginalia
On Reading: how our reading habits might change the way we think
UWA Publishing C S Lewis on reading reading reading habits Socrates
Words by Charlotte Guest, Publishing Officer at UWA Publishing
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Socrates bemoaned the advent of writing over oratory for what he saw as its negative impact upon memory: if all knowledge is documented there would be no need to retain it in our minds and our souls. Now, in the twenty-first century, we fear the impact of typing and electronic texts upon memory and learning, majority opinion being that we process information more thoroughly if we hand write notes as opposed to typing them.
Reading between the lines: notes on publishing now
UWA Publishing Australian publishing book industry publishing
Words by Charlotte Guest, Publishing Officer at UWA Publishing
As Sean Kelly wrote in a recent article for The Monthly, our public debate and mainstream media coverage has become increasingly simplistic. We have misplaced the tools for navigating complex topics; there seems to be no time for reflection. This can be said of issues for contemporary Australia as diverse as the refugee crisis to the housing crisis and the terrorism crisis. The point is they’re all ‘crises’; more and more, we are accessing these subjects through the language of extremes; we are witnessing a growing propensity to shy away from deep and sensitive analysis. As, at its core, this is largely a problem with language-use and communication, it is unsurprising that one of its victims is a primary communicative tool: the book.