What’s spoken flies away: The history and art of reading aloud

There’s an old Latin saying from the early Middle Ages: Verba volant, scripta manent — What is written remains, what is spoken flies away. Essentially, it means you should write down your contracts.

But according to Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading, the phrase can be interpreted in a different way: What is written is stuck to the page. It’s only when you give it a voice that it acquires wings and can fly.

This hour: reading out loud. We look at the history of the practice and talk to people who make reading expressive, communal, and loud.

GUESTS:

• Taneisha Duggan: Director, producer, arts consultant, and an artist working at the crossroads of performance and creative leadership
• Dennis Duncan: Lecturer in English at University College London
• Drew John Ladd: Blogger, activist, and the author of Wolfsong Beloved
• Alberto Manguel: Director of Lisbon’s Center for Research into the History of Reading
• Robin Miles: An audiobook narrator and a producer, director, teacher, and actor for theater, television, films, and museums
• Brooke Steinhauser: Programs director at the Emily Dickinson Museum
• Chion Wolf: Host of Audacious on Connecticut Public

The Colin McEnroe Show is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode!

Subscribe to The Noseletter, an email compendium of merriment, secrets, and ancient wisdom brought to you by The Colin McEnroe Show.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe, Jonathan McNicol, and Cat Pastor contributed to this show, which originally aired July 5, 2023.

Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.