Q2. Here, the respondent simply stated that reading did influence his behaviour.
Q3. His answer was significant because he, like another respondent, alluded to
the Biblical concept of the ‘Word made Flesh’, saying, that his education in a
Catholic school had ... placed a huge emphasis on the power of the word, its
taboos and its physical and metaphysical intimacy. He elaborated upon this point
in his response to Question 6 by saying that ... I n reading I often feel connected in
mind or experience with the author, often intimately, often with the same words ...
the literary experience is more a precise connection of minds.
Q7 and 8. The respondent said that ... Reading for me is a shut down of all
senses and that Consciousness becomes internalised.
This respondent used fascinating terms in responsing to further questions, for
example:
Q12. A serious writer is compelled to write.
Q13. Although I believe we have some sort of collective memories it is largely
through reading that we participate in the ultimate sport of changing souls, of being
able to experience life as someone else does.
Q14. Words need imagination to transform them into internal physical reality.
Q19. The response here was also provocative in that the respondent suggested
that ... I feel that places have an inbuilt type of memory in the landscape, that you
can feel the history of a place beneath your feet. To become part of that place an
individual ends up sharing in its history.
(e) Reader 4. R.P. (Teacher of English and French Literature.)
This respondent’s answers were much more considered and tempered
almost to the point of, it would seem, scepticism or of wishing to avoid any arcane
connotations.
Q2. The respondent revealed very personal detail by stating that ... the wide
reading done during thirty years has immeasurably deepened and complexified my
concept of what the dialectics of trust/ distrust, love/ hate and faith/ despair mean.
Q4. The respondent expressed a preference for American literature but said that
... I n Australian writing the perennial theme of the regions and their role in shaping
the local psyche has influenced me; Voss, The Tree of Man, Tourmaline,
Capricornia, the poetry of Shaw Neilson etc. One gets to know the inside nature of
places and locations through such sources.