Reading over other people's shoulders

[ciphergoth]

I can't help it. No matter how I try, I will always find myself glancing at what my fellow passengers are reading - their books, their newspapers, sometimes their drafts of the romantic novels they are writing.

What I find strangest is the way they seem to resent it so. Ok, this is understandable if what you're reading is a love letter, or even a text message, and in these cases I try extra hard to avert my eyes. But "Vernon God Little"?

Your efforts to angle the pages to shield them from my eyes, while trying to pretend that's not what you're doing, are incredibly pathetic and laugable. Are you frightened that the very letters will fly from the page into my eyes, denying you the pleasure of reading them? Or do you see the book as a hard-won trophy of your ability to pay for it, and thus resent sharing access to even fragments of a page? (This latter explanation, ludicrous as it may seem, is supported by the observation that Metro readers appear to be somewhat less rabidly propertarian over their reading material).

The other surprising thing I infer from their horrified reaction is that not everyone does this. How do you avoid it? Unless I have a book or a paper of my own, my eyes will wander for some interest, and attempts to corral them only hold then in briefly. I'm not allowed to stare at my fellow passengers - eyes must point firmly down, that rule I don't forget - and so it is on the reading matter that I inevitably feast - or at least, snack guiltily.

I'm listening in on your phone conversations too. But I'm sorry to report that in the brief time that we were sat together, the gentleman who inspired this little rant did not have the good grace to glance at my mobile phone and discover that I was writing about him. Pah!

Comments

[dr-d.livejournal.com]

I tend to react negatively to people reading over my shoulder in public space. I think it's something to do with how I cope with having more strangers around me than I feel designed to cope with. I tend to feel that we weren't built to cope with hundreds of people in close proximity - our brains haven't evolved that far from when we existed in small, close-knit groups. Too many strag=ngers (like in the tube) and I feel overwhelmed, hemmed in and "invaded" (an interestingly hind-brain response).

I cope by doing my best to tune them out, finding something to focus on so I can pretend I'm not corralled in a small space with too many other bodies. If someone then reads over my shoulder it breaks this focus and brings me back to the uncomfortable reality. Suddenly I can't just exist inside my own head, but feel forced to consider theirs as well, which makes me aware of how many other strangers I'm currently close to. The feeling of being invaded gets focused on the person who broke the spell, hence my tendency to be annoyed with them.

Yours in full work-avoidance mode.

[purplerabbits.livejournal.com]

Thank you for phrasing it so clearly: that's exactly what I get, and it's much worse when I feel claustrophobic anyway.