Distraction and reading

In his much lauded book of 1982 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes wrote about a concept called punctum. This related to the art of photography, and it meant the thing in a photo that caught your eye, that the viewer kept returning to think about, even after the photograph has been removed. This was contrasted against the idea of studium, the boring bits, or boring photographs, if you like. The bread and butter that backgrounded the honey.

Punctum provides a little reward each time, I think, and because of this we tend to seek more. I mention this because the idea of it has influenced the way I think about the changes that are taking place in our collective way of being in the world, and particularly what I think might be our increasing distractability. While this might be seen as linked to the ability to multi-task (as a positive thing) I wonder if there is also something in this increasing skill of dividing attention (that is quickly flicking between one thing and another) that reduces our ability to concentrate on one thing, and to follow through with it. I think we are seeking punctum at the expense of studium - in other words we want the icing without the cake, and with much the same result.

What does this have to do with reading? Well, in some ways, it means we are reading more - which is a good thing, although the more we are reading might be a kind of flit, flit, flit as we go from one thing to another like dragonflies over a pond. (Yes, I also read somewhere about the tyranny of we, and when I say we, really what I am saying is me.)

What I had started to find was that my concentration and patience to tolerate studium was reducing, and my seeking out of punctum increasing, which might be all very well, but it meant that I was missing out on finishing some very good books that needed to settle in before they revealed their considerable gifts, often deeper and more valuable than those of the easier to read 'hold your attention' 'gripping' books (not always, but sometimes) and more soul-feeding.

So what did I do? I made a decision to settle my mind, to get out less, stay in more, reduce my screen time, increase my page and notebook time, to be mindful of the things around me, and to sleep and daydream enough to restore and repair. The whole thing has been restorative and anxiety-reducing. My concentration is improving. The novel I am writing, one that had been stuck for a little while, is starting to move again. And I am back to reading more books.

I might have the whole punctum/studium thing wrong, so I am going to pick up Barthes' book again and read it to see. It's been quite a while and I have changed in the interim. But I'm changing back.