A link to a telephone interview with W. S. Merwin came across my Twitter feed this morning courtesy of Barbara R. (Thank you, Barbara!) There are worse ways to spend twenty-eight minutes than by listening to the audio of the interview, if you have the time. If not, the text of some of William Merwin's responses is well worth the read . . . slowly and contemplatively. And that's the thing for me, really, that contract between the writer and the reader. There is one, you know, and we often discuss the technical aspects of writing, but rarely do we touch on the reader's role. As writers, we read, too. But do we ever stop to wonder how our readers read? Do we skim and do we wonder how many of our readers also skim? But, most of all, I wonder if reading slowly and contemplatively is a dying art. I fear it is. Is it?
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