Hey Readers,
Let's do the time warp again, and again, and.... again! This is not your usual #throwbackthursday post guys, we're going to use today's post to discuss the phenomena we experience revisiting what we've read through the timeless practice of discussion (yes it's magic✨, you can't convince me otherwise).
Let's use a title we probably all know as an example, one that was branded in our brains by our Jr. High English teachers, Catcher in the Rye the 'coming of age' story starring the character we all love to hate to identify with, the iconic Holden Caufield. This book was written back in 1981 by J.D. Salinger, but we still talk about it today...why?
Because this book contains themes and social issues that know no bounds, it's timeless, and it doesn't take Dr. Strange and an infinity stone either... see! books are
magic.
The angsty years aren't just confined to 1981. Salinger was transcendent and honed into some major, deep seeded psychological principals that nearly everyone can relate to at any point in their lives. But...how exactly did we discover those elements and themes? Through discussion!
A brief history of orality
Guys, there are elements of text we can't explore on our own, we need to talk it out. It's basic psychology🧠, and there are no frills attached. Since we're already strapped into the time machine I'm going to have Mr. Peabody shoot us back to the basics, Dr. Strange just makes things weird.
Before there was the written word, we had oral communication, a foundational element for the texts we read. Oral literacy is the crux of the literacy we see today.
"Understanding the relations of orality and literacy and the implications of the relations is not a matter of instant psychohistory or instant phenomenology. It calls for wide, even vast, learning, painstaking thought and careful statement. Not only are the issues deep and complex, but they also engage our own biases. We—readers of books such as this—are so literate that it is very difficult for us to conceive of an oral universe of communication or thought except as a variant of a literate universe. " - Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word
What Ong is saying here, is that we aren't above oral means of literacy just because we're book literate. We can speak life into existence through oral stories, we can paint murals, create knowledge, and even history . Orality is a powerful tool, and we shouldn't discredit it because we feel we're above it. We need to find a way to incorporate it into our new found literacy as another tool for analysis and discovery, this is where discussion comes in.
Facilitating oral discussions
There is a real value to actual discussion, yes, oral communication is valid and dare I say, magical. We come to some amazing conclusions through discussion, the discoveries are organic and raw. Everyone can contribute, their voice matters and adds value to the discovery.
Get the ball rolling in your book group by loosening everyone up. Bookish beings can be a little shy or guarded, so maybe start off by finding some common ground in the text.
Here are a few ideas💡:
Throw out an opinion, as controversial as it might be, just to stir people up and get them thinking about their perspective. 🤔
Try reading an excerpt aloud, let your vocal inflections of the text saturate the group so they can feel the passage as you did, then have others do the same.
Do a fish bowl style Q & A, have everyone write down a question❔ or prompt ✍🏾upon arrival, or write them out yourself using the authors bio or influences then grab one out to spark your discussion for the session.
Explore the text through personal experiences. Book discussions can get a little personal, and that's ok!💞
Find the metaphors, ask the group to throw out ideas as to what larger themes are at play in the text (hint: there are no wrong answers)
Use whatever techniques that work for your group, just get your lips loose and get comfortable. You'll be surprised what you can discover through discussion.
References: Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy the Technologizing of the Word. Routledge, 2002.
Comments