Reading speed

[Paul DiFilippo]

I find the whole subject of prose complexity-levels and consequent
assimilation rates to be a fascinating and untapped one.  Obviously,
some prose is "denser" than other prose, and requires subtler
tricks of interpretation.  But there is some other factor at work--
call it gracefulness, perhaps--which makes some "dense" works
go down easier than others.  For instance, try a passage of Nabokov
followed by one from (for the non-expert) a physics text.  Something
other than baud rate is at work here.  And of course, there is the 
whole question of ranking "dense" works as "better" than "sparse"
ones.  And yet, would you trade the pleasures of James M. Cain or
Jim Thompson for those of Virginia Woolf?  Not me, baby!

--
Paul Di Filippo & Deborah Newton/2 Poplar St./Prov., RI 02906
"So far as the interests of the capitalist go it does not matter
whether he invests his money at home or abroad; it does not matter
whether his goods are manufactured in London or Timbuctoo." HG Wells