Open Writing

“Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” a seminal 2008 Atlantic Monthly article by Nicholas Carr, describes the author’s realization that his thinking patterns were changing because of his heavy use of computers and social media. He quotes HAL, the malfunctioning supercomputer in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” as the human astronaut disconnects its memory circuits. ” ‘Dave, my mind is going,’ HAL says forlornly. ‘I can feel it.’ ”

“I can feel it, too,” Carr notes, adding “something has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going … but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” Carr noticed it most when he read, struggling to read more than a few pages before “I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text.” Carr cites experts and friends who’ve experienced the same thing, and a lot of recent scientific evidence backs them up.

Carr’s article came to mind, so to speak, when I read “How the Brain Strings Words Into Sentences” on ScienceDaily.com last month. This article describes the critical role played by “white matter,” the two “dense bundles of nerve fibers” that connect, the Broca’s region and Wernike’s region, the two “grey matter” areas of the brain associated with language skills. These regions are the brain’s “main computing hubs underlying language processing,” and researchers found that the functions of the upper and lower white matter pathways connecting them differ markedly. These pathways are “much like fiber optic cables connecting computer servers.” Damaging the lower pathway causes trouble recalling specific words and meanings, but sentences are still easily constructed. The opposite is true if the upper pathway is hurt; you can name, understand, and remember words, but constructing sentences is challenging.

Reading itself is daunting, especially before you get proficient, but text can be easily comprehended when it’s accompanied with relevant illustrations. That’s the strategy behind the library’s award-winning Guys Read program. Guys Read targets 4th grade boys because that’s when many boys disassociate from reading for pleasure, and good graphic literature allows boys with low reading skills to connect with the stories. The goal of Guys Read is to help boys to consider themselves readers, for those that read for pleasure are far more likely to succeed in school and work, and they’re tremendously less likely to go to jail.

Here’s a personal reading brain story. While in college I came across an old Donald Duck comic from my childhood. Opening it, a sunny summer afternoon in Lovington, New Mexico sprang forth. I was four, and my dad and I went into a dim drugstore where he bought that comic and orange sherbet cones. Despite my shoddy memory, I can still see the afternoon light slanting through the store window, illuminating the soda fountain and comic book stand, and the quiet town square across the street, where we read and fed squirrels.

I started seeking out old Walt Disney comics to revive other lost memories and noticed that these comics were entertaining, even to my adult sensibilities. As a fledgling library director, I added them to the collection, and they were instantly popular. Today Carl Barks, the guy that drew those duck comics for Disney, is no more, but he still sells millions of comics and is the most popular author at our library. His books are used for Guys Read, too.

We created the Guys Read approach to reading seven years ago. All along it’s relied on volunteer readers who donate a few lunch hours during February to spread the joy of reading to every public school in the borough. Almost every fourth grade boy attends voluntarily because it’s fun. It’s also a kick to see how excited the boys get about reading. More volunteers are needed, so consider attending the hour-long Guys Read volunteer training session this Wednesday at 6 PM at Noel Wien Library, of call 459-1022 for information.

As always, reading will help keep your brain supple. For as Sir Richard Steel said, “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”