Reading With Both Sides of Your Brain

Okay, the whole left-brain/right-brain theory was overblown. People aren’t one or the other. We aren’t divided into bean-counters and artists. There are, however, some functions that are localized by hemisphere. An interesting study of people who had the halves of their brains surgically disconnected by severing the corpus callosum showed that both perception and the ability to communicate perception were drastically altered.



After the operation, they were fitted with a viewing apparatus so that the left eye saw one thing, and the right another. (They saw an X and an O, one with the left eye and one with the right.) When asked to say what they saw, the people who had undergone the split brain operation said they saw an X. When asked to write what they saw, however, the wrote an O. I may have that backwards as far as the X’s and O’s, but the point is that the two sides of the brain were perceiving things and communicating those perceptions quite differently.What does that have to do with writing? I believe it has everything to do with both writing and effective reading. Let me explain. When writing dialog, one must “hear” it as it is spoken. I mean that literally. When I write dialog, I imagine it being spoken as a particular character would say such a thing. (I have no idea if other authors do that or not, or for that matter, it it’s supposed to be done that way.) For me to communicate the meaning, tone, connotation, and emotion involved, I must hear the dialog in situ. For the reader to perceive what I write, he must do the same. To do this, each of us must use both sides of our brain, the analytical and the creative/artistic sides. The writing/reading experience is an attempted melding of two realities, two worlds if you will. As a writer, I want you to step into my world, to actually experience it the way I do.

As with hearing, so with seeing. I wish to paint a picture so that you can visualize it. Have you ever seen a movie that was better than the book on which it was based? Perhaps you have. I seldom have. The reason, I think, is that when really into a book, my imagination paints the scenes, the faces, and the action. It transports me into a world partly of my own creation. Therefore, the book is more real to me than a movie, because the movie is someone else’s creation.

So, what is the purpose of this discussion? I suppose I want to urge you to give full range to your imagination when you read. But to do that, you must read slowly. Pay attention to the words used. Pay attention to the punctuation. Stop and think often. Reading is the perfect example of Gestalt: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The writing is nothing without your unique interpretation. You are make it live.