What Would Make Readings More Interesting

Christina again.

I shouldn't confess this, but where else could I? So here goes: I find readings a little tedious. This is strange because I used to enjoy being read to as a child.

Here's why I think this is:

1. I'm now accustomed to digesting words silently and quickly, so readings are a little slow for my taste. Call it a result of our times and my generation's inability to focus on anything for more than two seconds, but halfway down the first page, and I'm usually gone... Poetry still rivets me, especially when it's performed well, but I'm always lost with stories. Lack of patience? Don't get me wrong. I love action-less, atmospheric stories as much as any literary nerd - what I like to call "clinically depressed fiction of minor epiphanies" - but it's just slow. In undergrad, I always liked professors who lectured rapidly; the words just flew by; it was like scrolling quickly and I could get a sense of the overall contours of the argument. I loved the challenge of note-taking, getting the jist of things, scribbling fiercely to keep up. I guess my problem is that I love form (structure, beam-work, the outline of things). When I hear one sentence at a time, and I'm being read to like a child, it's hard for me to see the whole, and a sense of the whole is part of the beauty.

2. I don't hear anything familiar. As with classical music and ballet and opera and the Boston Pops orchestra, sometimes a few old favorites can energize the crowd. I think if contemporary poets recited the work of other poets - or famous poems which everyone is familiar with - that would help a non-literary crowd make a connection between what they studied in school and the work of contemporary American poets.

People who are going to attend a reading should be able to "request" poems the way you would request "songs" before a formal dance. How much more compelling would it be if before readings you logged into a site and requested your favorite poem to be read by a famous poet of choice? It would be cool to see what other audience members picked, too. That would be half the fun. If I enjoyed the event, I might even purchase a recording afterward.

And it wouldn't matter if some of the poems were a little cheesy - or not what we would call great art. It would be worth the increase in attention.

3. Not enough sensual delight. Okay, I know a million people will disagree with me, and it's probably cheesy of me to feel this way, but people today are busy... there are a million things competing for the attention of audiences... strawberries, champagne, wine and cheese, exotic drinks, and goody bags could go a long way... also, if readings were events where people cared to present themselves well... I don't mean in suits or gowns... but I don't know... masks or costumes or something, that would cast a sense of strangeness and excitement on it all. "All dressed up with nowhere to go" is a problem for many people. Just go on craigslist, and you'll see tons of women looking for "Sex in the City" or "Gossip Girl" girl friends. People want to go out and have a good time. They want life to be Romantic and glamorous. They want to dress up and have somewhere to go.