Mortimer Jerome Adler

Charles Lincoln Van Doren

Analyzes the art of reading and suggests ways to approach literary works

How to Read a Book

Parmin

On the contrary, the reader or listener is much more like the catcher in a game of baseball. Catching the ball is just as much an activity as pitching or hitting it. The pitcher or batter is the sender in the sense that his activity initiates the motion of the ball. The catcher or fielder is the receiver in the sense that his activity terminates it. Both are active, though the activities are different. If anything is passive, it is the ball. It is the inert thing that is put in motion or stopped, whereas the players are active, moving to pitch, hit, or catch. The analogy with writing and reading is almost perfect. The thing that is written and read, like the ball, is the passive object common to the two activities that begin and terminate the process. We can take this analogy a step further. The art of catching is the skill of catching every kind of pitchfast balls and curves, change- ups and knucklers. Similarly, the art of reading is the skill of catching every sort of communication as well as possible. 

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