In case anyone is unfamiliar with the story:
Late in life, Pablo Neruda was giving a performance in a huge soccer stadium, packed with fans. Members of the audience shouted out a request for a poem from his earliest days. Neruda apologized, explaining that his memory was fading and that it had been such a long time since he had performed that particular piece. Not a problem. The crowd, in unison, rose up and recited it to him!
Obviously, in cultures that support professional poets the idea of reading from a book is just as unthinkable as stage or movie actors reading from scripts. In this case, cause and effect are one; speaking both generally and crossculturally, performances fill concert halls and stadiums, readings fill telephone booths.
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