Andmoreagain......

Something I read recently expressing astonishment that a 13 year old had read Great Expectations twice got me thinking.
I have hardly ever re-read a novel, Eng Lit studies excepted, no matter how good the story. Once you have read a story I cannot see the point in re-reading it as no matter how long between reads you will know the narrative, and how it pans out. Admittedly on second read you may well pick up on subtle nuances you missed first time round, but anyone who reads a book more than twice must have too much time on their hands! Re-reading seems to me even more pointless if the book is a suspense novel of some kind, for obvious reasons. There are only two books I have read more than once in my entire life, one is Jack Kerouac's On The Road, the other One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey. The former because it was the first Kerouac novel I had read, and after reading four or five more I had got used to his idiosyncratic stream of consciousness style, so I re-read OTT, and it made far more sense and remains one of my all time faves. I re-read OFOTCN after seeing the film some while after the first read, mainly to see what differences there were in translation from page to screen. Again it remains an all time fave.

Probably the most re-read books amongst my peer group is the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I have read the books once, seen the films, listened to the audio books. Great stuff it is, but I've no desire to read the books again. I will probably watch the movies again at some point as we bought the dvds, and I'll bet they're still sealed, which kind of proves my point.

Which brings me to movies, where for me the same rule applies. Never really been a movies fan anyway, but why waste umpteen hours of your life watching Star Wars (for example) again? I would make an exception for The Godfather I & II (forget III, it's not very good!). Xmas prezzy hint?

Music however is different. You can play your favourite album for the 738th time, and even though you know every note back to front and upside down it will still hit the spot. I think it must be the way the brain processes audio as opposed to ocular input. When reading a story or watching a script unfold on the screen a process of logic is being applied to arrive at a conclusion. That conclusion will in 99% of cases remain the same no matter how many times you repeat the process. When listening to music there is no "story" or "conclusion", it's the overall feel of the piece, so the brain is eliciting an emotional rather than logical response.

Wow! I should have been a trick cyclist!