Readed Extracted Text
Readed
the old reading
was a process of self-hypnosis
a voice in your head
that opened a curtain
so your eyes saccade
across strings of odd shapes
mostly grouped in lines
these shapes get processed
in some occult way:
shapes into sounds
sounds into words
and the resulting voice
digs into your thoughts
spooky action at a distance
the dead speaking again
fluent reading
skips the sounds
and saccades reveal
meaning directly into your mind
which is even more orphic
than an echoed voice
this mystic trick
of producing the sounds of
speech through visual forms
has a foggy history
and proceeded incrementally
from some observed coincidences
eye sea ewe
rather suddenly
spelling
became ossified
fixed and rule-driven
spelling used to be an art
not a law and now
auto correct eliminates any
choice
Rathē̆r suddenlī
spellende
becamæ ossifiede
fixede a’d rule-driven
spellende usede bihofþe bæ ain artificie
nōn-ọ̄ther ain law a’d now
autī correcÞ eliminateſ anī
choicæ
maybe printing forced
the codification of spelling in english or
maybe it was the protestant reformation or
maybe it was the publication of the bible in english or
maybe it was webster’s speller but
clearly a new technology
to produce
writing did change things and
now spelling bees
enforce english spelling by
making it a sporting moment
correct spelling?
the idea that there could be
one preferred method of representation
is offensive to our
late modernity
there is more than one path
mhore thein wun wai tu riit
the practice of
photography let drawing be
expressive, released from its
work of recording
so drawing became about drawing
leaving a resonant
tension between reading a line
and a line as evidence
there is always something
ominous about new technologies
and a process that captures likeness
in such a facile manner
so filled with amazing detail
raises suspicions and anxiety
so photography isn’t allowed
everywhere, proof of a persistent fear
of the capture of the soul
through technical means
or maybe that prohibition
was evidence of a private anxiety —
we can’t let people see
into everything
like courtroom trials or
like military sites or
any likeness that
threatens profit since
there is only one hammer anymore
but when photography is
prohibited in resolutely public arenas
questions
bloom
who gets to witness what?
and why does drawing seem safer
as a witness?
courtroom artists
attempt a balance between
representation
& the emotional
tenor
of a trial
and the irresistible urge
to make their own marks
the marks themselves become
part of the report
i try to read a
courtroom drawing
to tell me something about a miscreant’s
demeanor
are they afraid
are they repentant
are they lying
there’s one we know is lying
but i am mostly reading
the artist’s hand
dancing around an odd sense
of decoration
the courtroom artist draws
from their art training
rules for correct form and technique
are tacitly present
the history of art lingers over
a picture of the accused
correct form
what would van gogh
make of donald trump
in the courtroom
and
now
finally
reading
social media and
tiny screens
produce a new language
encoded ideograms
or with invented spellings
a new code
for written language
while autocorrect and ai
anticipate and redirect
writing into fixed regulated forms
a bifurcation into
personal and public
writing and reading
regulated written english
is drawing before photography
carrying too much weight
the burden of the past &
the prison of formal writing
are mostly uninteresting
to new audiences
so the
new writing
struggles like courtroom sketching
the tensions between
regulated communication
automated enforcement of rules,
and expression
shape the new reading
but the impoverished visual experience
of tiny hand-held screens
limits everything
and a lack of fluent literacy
among many
makes understanding a text
more variable
more contingent
& less determined
this is the new reading
birthing itself from the swamp
of social media
post-alphabetic, post-literary
a visual literacy of images,
symbols that are semiotically
fungible
revealing meanings contingent on context
a writing system for a media-soaked audience
where nothing
means the same thing
twice
this is the new reading
a warm bath but
oily and not quite clean