For the holiday season my mother got an audio book out from the library for my family to listen to. I noticed that my initial feelings towards hearing the phrase "audio book" were of judgement and criticism. When I became aware of this internal prejudice I for some reason had against audio books I began to wonder why. I think, however that I am not alone in these feelings. I've found that the idea of using an audio book as opposed to actually reading a book is subtly frowned upon (aside from those with any visual impairments, naturally), at least in the society we're living in, and this offers an excellent example of how constructed out reality is.
If you think about it, the sole difference between reading a book and listening to a book is a matter of choosing between which sense to use- sight or hearing. The higher status associated with using one's eyes to read has absolutely no practical reasoning behind it. While it is true that print has been around longer than audio books have, we have certainly been telling story through oral communication much longer than print, so the sort of "historical prestige" that may be associated with it makes even less sense. While this is not entirely related to hegemony, as I don't think this case exhibits one group being convinced to adhere to their own inequalities by another, the two are certainly related. The inexplicable prestige that I, and I'm sure others, associate to reading vs. hearing really puts into perspective how much of our reality is constructed and has little to do with practicality.
This is very interesting. When I tell someone I listen to audio books I often add “But I read too”. I think I say this for fear the person will think I'm stupid. But it takes just as much intelligence to comprehend an audio book as it does to read the book with your eyes. I mean, I doubt Ulysses by James Joyce is a doddle as a talking book!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post. I love audio books too (along with paper ones) :)
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