QUOTE: LANGUAGE, STORY, WAYS OF KNOWING: - #5

“Reading, like speech, is an ancient, preliterate craft. We read the tracks and scat of animals, the depth and luster of their coats, the set of their ears and the gait of their limbs… We read the weights and measures of the wind, the flight of birds, the surface of the sea, snow, fossils, broken rocks, the growth of shrubs and trees and lichens. We also read, of course, the voices that we hear. We read the speech of jays, ravens, hawks, frogs, wolves, and, in infinite detail, the voices, faces, gestures, coughs and postures of other human beings. This is a serious kind of reading, and it antedates all but the earliest, most involuntary form of writing, which is the leaving of prints and traces, the making of tracks…

- A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World, Robert Bringhurst