Image source: Audible
Reading Reflection written February 2024
One day, will tangible books become ancient relics?
Will there be people who’ve never felt the weight and fragility of these mental portals with their bare hands?
Who determined the initial English keyboard to appear as it is?
How is it possible that people can sight read from sheet music involuntarily deciphering all key signatures; these mystical codes within riddles, concealed in the beauty of mathematical precision.
Which is more difficult, translating images into paintings or writing about why an artwork is painted and important?
As someone who has fallen in love with reflecting after reading, I can relate to Irene’s obsession with books/authors/translators and the makers of books. What an inexpensive and simple form of technology a book is. So ubiquitous and at times a luxury or even dangerous to own this archaic form of communication.
One of my favourite nightly rituals after (the mayhem of) the infamous paratenal-dinner-bath-bed-routine with toddlers, is playing the roles (overacting as my husband might playfully-taunt) of characters in the children’s books while gleefully admiring the interactions of my son and daughter before they slip into slumber. Thinking of the books they’ll enjoy as their appetite for curiosity evolves with age, makes me mama-giddish.
Irene narrates her book with such gusto it flows within the same vein as Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. These epic tales are of, (not only knowledge, storytelling and documentation)but: power, politics, enjoyment and life itself.
To think of all the pseudonym seamstresses of words that will forever be unrecognised, tossed in the bin of pacified women makes my mind spin. It lays a foundation for an art project exploring ownership of ideas, begging questions such as; What are the advantages and disadvantages of recognition vs anominity impacting artists, designers, coders and authors today?
Read this when you want to explore the unread pages of history, tales of humans’ intrinsic urge to make symbols and be heard. Read again and again when you are over being overstimulated by oversaturated screens and just want a healthy-peaceful and pleasurable pastime.