“The dream of speed-reading has been around since long before screens were ubiquitous,” as James Camp writes in the New Yorker. Now, the much-discussed startup Spritz is promising to make that dream a reality with a technology that streams text in word by word, obviating the need to move one’s eyes while reading.
Theoretically, this technology would make it possible to read a thousand words a minute, meaning it would be possible to read Lolita “in just under two hours.” But the new possibility of reading this fast brings about a question: Why speed through good writing?
The app’s technicians have streamlined reading by eliminating waste and tightening slack, in a spirit of corporate thrift, “so you can spend more time doing what you want to do.” But what if reading is what you want to do?
