> “Do you think,” the professor was saying, “that you could spend two hours reading the same passage, the same sentence, even the same word? Do you think you might find it tedious or boring?”
This sentence remained with me for two days. Then I went back to the article and tried to read this sentence for two hours. But I was bored after reading a few times. I understand why. Because I got its meaning! Once I understood its meaning it makes no sense to read it again and again. So the Prof. must have meant to read a sentence you don't understand again and again until you understand it. Are there such intractable sentences? Or, maybe if I read this sentence for 2 hours I would extract new meanings.
I think there is a delight that happens, at the edge of understanding, from trying to fill in the gaps and succeeding. You read (or hear) a sentence you don't quite comprehend, but you get the gist and the remained becomes very evocative. The more ways there are to interpret a phrase, the more intriguing it becomes.
I once translated Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream into an invented language for a (fairly polarizing) production. For the most part, audiences could follow the play--not understanding a word the actors spoke--from character, behavior, expression, intonation, costume, staging, etc. Typically when I direct a play, I watch opening night, and then I'm done. I've spent months with the text and weeks in rehearsal, and I want nothing to do with it once it's up. But this play I watched every night. I found it endlessly fascinating. I understood the actors' intention, but because the words were nonsense, I understood it slightly differently every time, making every performance fresh.
This sentence remained with me for two days. Then I went back to the article and tried to read this sentence for two hours. But I was bored after reading a few times. I understand why. Because I got its meaning! Once I understood its meaning it makes no sense to read it again and again. So the Prof. must have meant to read a sentence you don't understand again and again until you understand it. Are there such intractable sentences? Or, maybe if I read this sentence for 2 hours I would extract new meanings.