I'll share a little bit about this since my sources are mainly from books now.

What makes books so difficult to read?

When one is being confronted with magic that is in print, majority (I think) will shun away after seeing lots of text rather than crystal clear photographs. I'm sure when you are starting out in magic, surely you will come across books on the subject and even try to learn from it.

Majority of the time, when we are stuck with one particular sentence or paragraph that we simply cannot understand, we really wished that there was a video description of the portion that we don't understand.

What has gone wrong here? Have our reading ability dropped over time? Or is it that authors, as far as magical literature is concerned, have used a mode of language that we, as modern people, do not understand?

Some of the magical fraternity has hailed Erdnase's "The Expert at the Card Table" one of the best and the most well written piece of sleight of hand literature. Even our well most respected Dai Vernon, hailed it as his "Bible", committing it entirely into his memory. But some brushed it away as "unpractical" or "flawed writing" or even sometimes, "obsolete".

As far as I am concerned, the detail in the text that is in Erdnase's work is simply astounding. In my case, I have to read the description of the "S.W.E. Shift" for 7 times before I can fully comprehend the movements involved between the 2 packets of pasteboards.

I can only come to a stand that many in the magical fraternity, I'm afraid, have their reading and comprehension standards fall to an extent that the slightest "chim"ness in any text will leave them wanting a "visual".

The degeneration of reading ability in modern man has led to the DVD revolution in magic. By providing a visual element to the teaching process, learning magic has come to a stage of simplicity. But to cite its pros and cons is not my subject here. I shall move on.

Do not think that when I made my stand above about the degenerating reading standards, I am referring to people with very little literacy. Even people who have a substantial amount of literacy, can also be subjected to flawed reading and interpretation. I shall address this group of people first.

Whenever we read a technical description, it is part of our nature to actually visualize in our head how would it work. We often skim through the entire description, hoping that by skimming through, we can actually achieve our goals quickly. But I'm afraid, that is very wrong. We rush through the section, mostly ASSUMING how the move should be done and then proceeding with our private practice. However, if we were to slow down and read word by word what the author is trying to convey, most of the time you will find that it actually contrary to what you assume it to be. And even as private practice begins, a constant reference back to the original text will prove that some tiny bit of detail is lost on the first or second readings, which we will take note of and apply it into practice. As for my experience in the workings of the "S.W.E. Shift", most of the tiny details about the handling only comes with the subsequent references back to the text.

In general, read carefully and slowly. And do not go ahead of the text. The author has put a lot of himself into describing things to you, therefore read it exactly as it is. Read again and again. Repetition brings familiarity.

As for people with falling literacy standards, one solution is to actually bring that standard up again by excelling in school. There is no escape. Good material are all hiding in print, you will definitely need a certain amount of literacy in order to grasp the material. Another is to just stick to video learning, and miss out all the good stuff altogether.

In conclusion, reading is part of what builds civilizations. Almost all of the utmost important things are all recorded in the form of text. If we do not learn reading skill, we will indeed miss out a lot, not just in magic, but in all other ways in life also.

Kenneth

Wow, a very good read. And some good advice on how to read, too, for those who can't seem to learn from books. :lol:

Oh why, thank you.

Kenneth

I have both the Royal Road to Card Magic and The Expert at The Card Table. It seems that the RROCM is easier to read and at the end of each sleight, it gives a small note on the little finess to look out for. EATCT seems to be the secondary school textbook compared to RROCM. So best is commit RROCM to your memory before the EATCT.

Read the foreward written by the author. Because it really provokes people.

hey.

I learnt my classic pass from a thick book in the SJI library. Not that I could do it very well at that time but it was workable with a lot of misdirection. Can any Josephian locate that book?

CSJ

You sure you can? My gosh. RRTCM is much thicker compared to EATCT, which is only like 200 pages.

I disagree. It does not really matter which you start with. Both books teach from you from scratch.

I don't mean to be rude but...

Would it be better to post replies that are relevant to the thread? I certainly think that locating a book is definitely what is not being discussed here.

Thanks alot.

Kenneth

I watch video and I seldom read books, So I don't think i can comments on this thread. (Sound like a useless post, there are alot of people doing so)


LOL!! Ok, I joking. Anyway My comments:

The good things about video, you got the vision, you develop pictures that you can understand, and eventually progress better. BUT, video are limited, they can only show that much, 1hr. Anymore is asking you to pay more, will you? So for that much, how much can you learn? Also, alot of small details, will not be highlighted in the video and you have to dig for it, like being an idiot and keep repeating the section just to catch where his little finger is.

I witness alot of videos being like that, but being a video freak, I spent most of the time, repeating the section just to memories where the fingers or what his actions was. Thats for videos that are done well, for those videos that are crap, I can tell you, you first impression to the video is, what is he talking about, I can't see the moves. In sense, sometime, the performer expected you to know something, but actually you might not know. So that is the ultra sadness for bad videos.

The good things of a book, first, you can bring out and read, and reading the same section many times, no one will know, imagine yourself playing back the section on a mrt train, people will think you nuts. And 90% of the time, books provides much more details, like the STILL graphic let you imagine the fingerings easier.

But one thing that the book cannot give you, is the presentation style, they can say alot of wonderful things in the book, but seeing is always believing, what they say, might not work in the real work, and video provides you the visual, to let you make a choice, whether it works, or don't work. :)

Well, I personally think other than demonstrating the effects, I think videos really suck completely at explaining things. I can attack that, but I'll go off topic.

Books cannot give you presentational style for one good reason. It is because usually the author wants you to find your own style. If you like videos over books simply because it gives you a "presentational style" so as to speak, go find something else to do. Don't be a copycat.

If learning magic is all about "seeing is believing", I seriously think you do not even read much or even watch much videos to start with.

If you think what authors say might not work in the real world, I'm compelled to think that your view on magic is seriously perverted. If it does not work, WHY DID THE AUTHOR EVEN PUT IT DOWN THE FIRST PLACE? (Caps for emphasis, not shouting.) Please.

So what if video provides you with a visual? That's not the main point. Call me a person seriously biased against videos, but magic started out in print, and people succeeded in performing by learning from print. What makes us so different then?

As I have mentioned, maybe our reading abilities have degenerated so much we are back to the days of kindergarten level colorful picture books in order to learn something. Isn't that very sad? Doesn't that level our IQ equal to a 3 year old?

Kenneth

Wo Wo Wo..

Relax dude.. Whats with the heat up?

I only giving my view from what I see, yes it can be wrong. I appreciate it. But relax, and I not saying we have to copy any presentation style from video? It just give you a visual guide, whether follow or not, its up to individual.

But anyway, I believe in both items. Books have given me the room to think, while nothing is speaking into your brain. Video gave me the visual aid that sometimes i need.

So, I not saying books are not good, I will say, alot of things, book are way better, I got tons at home also. Better to store also. Videos well, for some commercial effects, most of them are video-ed. But I still get good effects in words form.

So I believe both gives their advantage, just who prefers what.

I think it's largely dependent on a person's intelligence type rather than just intellect or IQ. Sounds off topic but let me explain. Howard Gardner, a psychologist and leader in the field of intelligence research theorized that there are 8 distinct intelligencee types.

1) Linguistic
2) Longitudinal/Mathematical
3) Visual/Spatial
4) Musical
5) Bodily Kinesthetics
6) Interpersonal
7) Intrapersonal
8) Naturalist

For this particualr topic let's just look at types 1 and 3.

Perhaps we can apply a person's intelligence type in terms of learning from books or videos as well. Linguistics maybe able to grasp more fully the concepts that written text may provide but perhaps one who is more spatially inclined requires a more visual learning technique. That's one way to look at it.

But i must agree fully on one thing. Texts immortalise authors and their techniques which they try to pass on to others. With slow and careful reading i'm sure even those less inclined to learning from written texts (such as I) can learn loads that a video might not be able to give us. =)

i hope i didn't veer to far off tangent.

Regards
Bryan

I use to read a lot when I first started, I still do but not as much as before. Videos are easier to learn, so majority of the people will use videos instead of books.

When majority of the people use videos, the effects becomes common, and most of the people get influence by the video's patter and style which may not be suitable for them.

I'm not bias against videos, to improve, I'd say read book and watch videos. But let me tell you, the good stuffs are all inside books, you just have to dig it out.

Who says learning magic is easier :D ?

I tried reading books when I first started but the truth is, I find it very difficult to visualize the movements described in books (even with illustrations). In fact, I'm still having problems with my Expert at the Card Table, but getting better now, after receiving some guidance from Shade.

I suppose I'm a very visual person. I need to SEE exactly how a move is done and videos had made life so much easier for me.

That being said, I've started to read books (again) and I would say the stuff I learnt from videos has helped me tremendously in understanding the words. At least I don't need to start from scratch to figure out a pass. I only need to improve on my current method

Yes I agree, the best stuff is usually in books, but I think we need to have a foundation first before going into them (if you are like me).

My point: (If you've difficulty reading)... Watch Video first, then REad the Books!!

*About the danger of mimicking the magician in video, I suppose as a beginner, you got to start somewhere to establish your style. It will only get better when you perform more, read more and learn more.*

Hey Llamalamer,

That's why magicians say, if you want to keep something a secret, write it in a book!

Haha. A little off topic I know, but it's funny.

No video introducing card magic (even books), in my very personal opinion, can beat the Card College series.

Personally, I feel that learning from video is basically imitation, or to say more frankly, copying. Nothing wrong about that though. But learning from books, which means comprehending, understanding, and (a lot more) THINKING is a far more enjoyable and fruitful experience for me. Also, its a lot more abstract so there are more personal inputs. But video doesn't, you just have to be a copycat, but the advantage is that the learning process is a lot faster, (which seems to be a good thing, or is it? Well, look above!)

Btw, for those still reading RRTCM and the likes, please get some modern book (or video) because some sleights are outdated, and better variations would have been invented after god knows how many years. Though if you are tight on budget, I guess it would still do. :)

hey bmt!

You actually hit where books stand out the most. It immortalizes the authors work as it is passed on to others. I cannot disagree on that.

I personally do not blame people for watching videos to learn magic. I started out watching videos too. Only when I discovered the gems that are hiding in books then I decided to read them. Only after reading them, when compared to videos, they teach a much superior degree of magic that I have ever come across.

Haha. It never was, and it never will. As far as good magic is concerned. Magic only started to become difficult for me now.

Me too sometimes. But I only support videos as far as demonstrating performances. As for explanations, I would highly insist on going for text.

That's right! Due to the fact that most people watch videos to learn, most secrets are locked within pages of a book. Unless I start a reading revolution here. :P

For that, I'll have to strongly disagree.

No doubt there are better moves out there now, the sleights and tricks that are taught in RRTCM or EATCT are still practical and workable. It is usually the misinterpretation of the text that leads to the so-called "impracticality" and the like.

For those reading these classics, persevere on! There are true gems hidden waiting to be dug out and to amaze audiences!

Kenneth

Totally agree. There are lots of good magic in books, usually the good ones are the ones that people do not read. Which I'm not sure why. :unsure:

Being a visual learner has it advantages, it's easier to capture the moves and sleights. I started off as a hardcore video geek, but has slowly deviates towards the books. I do get dowsy when I read chunks of words because I have a very short concentration span (I can't even sit through a Lord of the Ring movie).

So people who have the same problem as me can try this. Since most books tends to describe the effect first before the method (except Kaufman's :angry: ), try reading through the effect paragraph first. Keep going through in this manner until there is one that you really like, then proceed on with the method. I think this reading "manner" helps me to learn easier, faster and much more enjoyable. Firstly, no harm will be done to your concentration level since you are reading only the effect section. Secondly, if you come across an effect you are really interested in, I think it will boost your desire to learn it even more, thus again will not be affecting your concentration level. After you got the moves down, practice it well before moving onto the next trick. This is easier said than done, I always find myself searching for another good trick before I can do the previous one well.

In short, pick something that interest you first to begin with (who says it must always start from page 1?) and you will find reading an enjoyable "chore".

Lastly, however and finally, I would recommend beginners to watch a few videos first to get the basics down before going into books. There are fantastic books out there that requires you to have a basic knowledge of sleights, not knowing the basics will only waste the money.

My $0.02