sometimes while you sleep you dream something with a conclusion that is absolutely logical inside that dream - but soon after you wake up & still remember that film (dream) you recognize that this logical conclusion was absolutely nonsense
well some people also in real life come to astoundingly nonsensical results while trying to think logical - like you can come to the conclusion, that the sky is blue because the sea is blue, but it's opposite
& this happened even to me today - I sat in the tram on the way to one of my working places (this one is my daily regular one) - I was as usual for some weeks & months reading "Mr. Norrel & Mr. Strange" by Susanna Clarke a very fine & exquisitive modern, but english old style novel playing in 18th century England, mingling history of that time with magician's & faery stuff in a very obscure & not foreseeable way. None of the typical stereotypes of normaly used plot-lines of such a story line is used here. - Why do I need such a long time reading this book? - Not because it's endles (it's of course endless or at least a lot of hundreds of pages thick) - No - because I only read it on the view stations inside the tram, to chase away the odour of common vulgarness of busy street life around me away) -
but let's come to my absurd dreamlike conclusion today. - While holding this heavy volume in my hands, holding it in appropriate position to read it, it became as usual heavier & heavier in my fingers while time passed. - I had to change it's position in my hands because of it's weight & while still reading on, another part of my brain produced the alleviate thought, that the more pages I would read on, the lighter the book would get - of course - just like a heavy bottle of water, that gets lighter & lighter with every sip you take . - But as nice as the methapher is - comparing the read letters, words, sentences & pages to the water you drink - reading words - drinking water.. - but in fact the book didn't get any lighter while reading it.
Well maybe we should invent other books, where the words & pages burn away (just vanish) after you've read 'em - that has in second effect the advantage, that you always know where to continue in this book when later on you read on (but maybe also the disadvantage that you can't repeat an older, already read passage of that book) -
but as long as our eyes aren't yet able to shoot laser beams that's maybe utopical. - (& how about just tearing out each page after you've read it, rumple it & throw it on the floor - ah well of course they would imprison you for heavy littering)
To use other senses than the eyes to read a book, may would result in 'Braille' - but that doesn't make sense in this matter, because braille books would probably be still more heavy & they also don't disolve, while reading them - well hear-books are rather light, but one of the dislikes I have for hear-books is, that you have while listening stay in the same rhythm as the voice that reads it for you, so every time you are distracted (which in a tram you are a thousand times while driving) - you have to press a stop button, a re-wind button (which never reads you to real point where you've missed the passage) & a continue button & are not in your own time ryhtm of reading.
But what other senses we still got? - I don't think about smelling, that would be probably very hazy & vague for real words & sexual senses are definetly too much exited to ever read. -
But tasting could maybe an alternative. - Eat my words! - Maybe we could train our taste senses in our mouths to recognize words. I'd imagine long ribbons of neutral taste with letters on it which different tastes for each letter in short distances, some with fruitish flavour like banana, strawberry, pinapple, some with chocolate, onion, roast beef, milk, salt, pepper, tuna, olive, saucage, hazelnut, citrons, bread, lobster, coffe, orange juice, mustard, mint, wine, chilly, pie, caviar, pink champagne, cherry tart, tobacco, salmon taste etc. - maybe the fruit tastes for the vowels & the sharper tastes for the consonants - some sharp consonants like 's' 'r' 'c' should be real spicy, but the consonant 'm' could maybe have the taste of honey - you get the idea? - There would be a worldwide congregation to decide which flavour could meet with which letter - of course in corporation with laborataries testing on thousands of subjects, which different food tastes are the most easy to be distinguished from each other.
National food taste has also to be considered, so probably the book food roll of countries like Mexico would probably taste much more tasty (hot chilly) than those books for the spice moderate northern countries (so far The 'Book of Spices' by Leonard Cohen gets quite another meaning..). Of course there'd be also books for vegetarians, avoiding meat tastes, replacing them by some kind of soja & see weed stuff. - there'd be also 'kosher' books, avoiding letters with 'fried eggs' taste close to 'chicken meat' flavour - maybe a special kosher divider between them.
These literature ribbons with edible words could maybe delivered in something like (edible) celluloid film roles, with tiny amounts of the letter flavours in regular distances added..
With a little crank handle you could get the sentences in the flavour sences of your mouth & so read by just your good taste & of course by your own .
And the book food celluloid roll will of course getting lighter & lighter while reading (eating) it.
For dietist there will be book rolls available with only very slight flavour without any kjoul or kc) - but for hungry people who alway like to munch a little snack while reading will be much more food content in the book rolls & you'll see people stop reading if they're luscious..
This could be a real possibility to motivate children who only look video & tv or play PC games to get interested in books & literature again - by letting them starve for a while & then offering them: "Why not eat a book? - There's pizza, hamburger & spaghetti bolognaise in it.."
