The Power of Pause

In a discussion about how God is "not in time", author CS Lewis uses the analogy of an author who is not bound by the time frame of the fiction he writes. He may write "Lucy stirred her tea and immediately stood up." For the character, the two actions are immediate, but a reader may interrupt their reading to go for a walk or take a nap, thus breaking a flow that was supposed to be unbroken. Though it was not his intent, Lewis highlighted one of the great weaknesses of the written tradition. This "pausing" advent affords an opportunity for disinterest or other thoughts to creep in, disengaging one from the ideas of the text and derailing the original intent of the writer.

When I was around five years old, I was playing Pajama Sam, perhaps the greatest computer game for my generation. It was not very difficult, but to increase the tension, the game threw a curve ball near the end. They imposed a time limit, and the game made a big fuss to make sure you understood that this was the most urgent time of your childhood. Now, the time limit was very lenient, and there was no real danger of losing the game, but my childish mind panicked, and I punched the computer's power switch as hard as I knew how.

That's how you reset.

Now that the game was "paused",  I had time to cool down, restart, and complete the level with a cool head. The tension the game designers had intended had withered and died.

I have had the same experience while reading. In a book, a speech, or an article, we are the masters of time. We can pause, fast forward, or replay any section of the text, at our own leisure. The author's original voice may be drowned out, since we take the power to direct our thoughts out of their hands. Although writing provides an excellent way to communicate our thoughts, it also provides readers a very dangerous opportunity to disconnect.